When The Times Are Turned
by Witch Amadeus
Summary: Finished Not your everyday time travel fic. Ginny and Oliver travel back in time and have to find a way out. Politics, time and love hold them back. Can they ever return to their time when the other begins to belong to them, too? Complete
1. When Tables are Turned

A/N: I am aware that this plot has been done over and over again, but I hope to throw a little spin on it and keep someone interested long enough to determine that it's just not one of those time travel fics and they might actually want to read it. That's what I'm hoping people will think anyway. I started out with a pretty generic version, but I like to think it's improved. Order of the Phoenix spoilers, go out and get yourself a copy! Happy Reading! 

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize? Good, it's not mine.

_Let me explain my time logic. Okay, so Harry Potter was supposed to have his first year of Hogwarts in 1996, right? And all this ultimately means that Harry would have graduated this year an interesting note._

_                That would make his birth year: 1985. _

_                Assuming his parents had him at 27, their birth year is: 1958_

_                Their Hogwarts term would have therefore been: 1969 – 1976_

_And explaining the Weasley kids age…_

_                Assuming Bill was 25 when Harry and Ron were 14, there is an 11 year difference. _

_                Which means Bill would have graduated in: 1985, Harry and Ron's birth year_

_                In turn he would have started in: 1978, two years after Harry's parents graduated. _

_                So, in their fifth year, 1974, Bill would have been: 7 years old._

_                Making Charlie, four years younger in my book, : 3 years old _

_(you're enjoying this, aren't you?) _

_                Percy, who won't make an appearance as of yet would then be 3 years apart from Charlie, the twins would be 2 years from Percy and Ron two years from the twins and Ginny a year from Ron  and whopping 12 years from Bill_

_                That is my, somewhat fuzzy, math._

When the Tables are Turned. 

Light came through the lace curtains and streamed onto Ginny Weasley's pillow and head. She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. She had the whole house to herself today, except for Harry. But she didn't mind that, they always found something to do. On the couch, on the counter, on her bed, in the garden, cut that, never in the garden. Anyway, she was safe for another for few hours, from his horndog tendencies, he and Ron had been out late last night. She was safe to make pancakes, and make noise. 

 "The talk of the town! Du nuh du nuh, Mr. Tangerine Speedo! You're all over town du nuh du nuh Mr. Tangerine LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!" She sang loudly collecting ingredients and dumping them into a bowl. Harry poked his head into the room. He squinted at her, he didn't have on his glasses. Only pajama pants. She shimmied over to plant a kiss on his lips, he returned it blearily. She went back to her mixing bowl. "Women can't resist a man who looks good in a speedo." She waved to him and cracked eggs into her bowl. "PLEASE GIVE ME A TOW-" She stopped singing as Harry turned off the radio and headed back upstairs. 

                "Be quiet," were his parting words. She followed him grumpily. 

                "What's your problem?"

                "Tired." He grumbled. "I want to sleep, honey." He whined, scratching the back of his neck.

                "Where did you and Ron go last night?" She sped up so she was walking alongside him. He glared at her for a moment. 

                "None of your damn business." He muttered, instantly regretting it as she leapt in front of him and pressed her arms against either side of the hallway to bar his way. He stared and stopped. 

                "Now listen here Harry Potter! If you have a reason for turning off my music either than a hangover I'd be glad to hear it! Otherwise stay upstairs and put a pillow over your head! If it doesn't block out the sound then you can use it to smother yourself and do us all a favor." She bellowed then knocked past him and went back downstairs, stormily turning the radio back up and finishing breakfast. Harry came back down showered and dressed. She crashed a plate in front of him and he winced. 

                "I'm sorry, Ginny." He muttered. "These are very good."

                "I'll bet they are." She snapped. "You know, you have no reason to act like such a prat and –"

                "I wasn't acting like a prat." He defended weakly. 

                "Could've fooled me." Harry winced again. He chose to remain quiet. Ginny finished her pancakes first and picked up the newspaper, crossing to the living room to curl up and read it. Harry joined her a few minutes later. 

                "You're so damn loud in the morning." He accused. She considered him testily for a moment and then smiled. He gave a tentative smile back. 

                "There's nothing interesting in the newspaper! Thank Merlin!" She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into the armchair with her. "I'm not a morning person!" She whooped. "Let's shag!" 

                "Ginny, I'm as thrilled as you are that there's nothing in the Prophet, and I support your decision to shag. However, Ron and Hermione were going to stop by here for lunch and seeing how's you're not a morning person, even though I heard you get up around noon, I think we should wait an hour or two." 

"And run the risk of being caught by my parents? No way! Ron will recover." Ginny stared at Harry a moment before starting in on him again. 

"Just a few hours," Harry coaxed. 

                "Okay! Absolutely! I agree!" She wasn't acting like it. There was polite coughing from the entranceway. The couple looked up, startled, as three people crossed the threshold and went to greet them. Ron, Hermione and Oliver Wood. Ginny beamed and met Oliver with her hand outstretched in greeting. She was only too aware that she was still in her pajamas, robe and all important, fluffy slippers.

                "I saw him down in Diagon Alley, shopping all on his own, and asked him here for lunch." Hermione explained, looking slightly apologetic and mostly embarrassed. 

                "Harry and I have just had breakfast…" Ginny began.

                "Obviously, and we could tell you were preparing for lunch." Was Hermione's dry response.

                "We just had breakfast, but I could whip something up for lunch." Ginny wrinkled her nose at Hermione, who wrinkled her nose back. Hermione made the noise and motion of a whip cracking. Ron was laughing, thrilled at the fact that Ginny and Harry were finally together. Teenage pregnancy? Who cares, it's Harry Potter! Ginny blushed at her own thoughts and excused herself. 

                "I'll help you out." Oliver offered eagerly. "I'm not a bad cook." Harry bit his lip, but Hermione whispered something to him and he was sated. The door swung close behind them in the kitchen, Ginny heard talking and laughter from the other room. 

                "Thank you so much…" She grabbed his elbow confidentially and leaned to whisper in his ear. "Most of these guys couldn't make that the statement, 'I am not a bad cook', under the strongest truth potion out there." He chuckled, she kept a firm hold on his elbow, slightly hoping that Harry would come in. He had been so grumpy, this morning.  

                "So over there's the oven."

                "Yes, let's just see if we can't _whip_ something together." Oliver gulped. Ginny knew that she wasn't extraordinarily attractive, but she could get what she wanted. 

                "Right then, I'll just move this table and give us some more room." He raised his wand and performed a simple spell. Unexpectedly a bright, blue light flared up. Ginny clung to Oliver's arm tighter, not knowing that years later she would spend hours reflecting on the simple motion that would have taken her away from his arm and completely changed her life. She lowered her arm that she was unaware she had raised against the blue glow. "That was unexpected." Oliver said and then let out an angry yell. "And look, the damn table didn't even move!" Ginny looked around at their surroundings.

                "Oliver, you're wrong. I don't know how you did it, but we're like a mile away from my house. Levitate the bloody table, never mind! Let me do it and we'll head back up." They had a laugh as they started out. 

                "I swear, I do that spell almost everyday and that's never happened before." Oliver snorted. Ginny cackled. "Honest." He protested, unable to hold a straight face. They caught up all the way back. Finally, the Burrow was in sight. Ginny squinted, something was different. Oliver hadn't noticed and they continued back up to the house.  As they got closer, something rocketed out of the screen door, yelling triumphantly. Before the screen door could slam shut, an impressively pregnant Molly Weasley ran out, equally fast. Ginny grabbed Oliver's arm and he hung back, looking confused. Ginny jumped the screen door slammed closed, Molly noticed them and gave a little wave, looking a moment too long at Ginny's pajamas. Ginny blushed and pulled her robe closed.

                "I'll be with you dears in a second!" She said through gritted teeth. "William Wallace Weasley! I'll wallop you with my broom! Come back here this instant with that wand!" There was maniacal laughter from the trees bordering the Burrow and the sound of some sort of explosion, suddenly hysterical crying echoed through the air. They ran to the group of trees, Molly was picking up her wand, with some difficulty, and smiled at them. She casually walked away, apparently deaf to the crying. 

                "Where did he go?" Ginny asked, it seemed that her favorite brother was gone. 

                "Oh, don't worry, dear." Molly brushed off her ratty maternity robes. She surveyed Ginny's pajamas. "That's the fifth time this week he's turned himself invisible. He'll be back home." She followed them back to the table. She looked just as confused as they did. "You've brought a… table?" She seemed to be searching for a better word. "Is it for us?" She scratched her head. 

                "Yeah, yeah we did." Oliver said quickly. Ginny elbowed him in side. 

                "Really, that's excellent! Bill's just blown ours up!"  Two ears came up beside Molly, they turned red. Molly noticed them and tapped her foot, as if expecting something. "Is there something you want to say?" She admonished sternly. 

                "Sorry, Mum." She grabbed one of the ears and pulled it along to the house. 

                "Come in, come in! Bring the table." Ginny hung back for a moment, watching them head for the house. "Come on!" Molly said, somewhat impatiently. Oliver spurred into motion and levitated the table, grabbing Ginny's hand and pulling her towards the house. 

                "I don't understand." She whispered to Oliver. He shook his head.

                "I don't either, but it looks like we'll just have to play along until we do understand."

                "Oliver… Oliver I think we've gone back in time." He rolled his eyes. 

                "Oh, well spotted." He muttered. She scowled at him. He sheepishly ran a hand through his brown curls.  "Sorry, I just thought that was kind of obvious." He said.__

                "We have to get to Hogwarts." Ginny said desperately. 

                "Let's just orient ourselves, and then we'll figure things out." Oliver snapped, putting the table at an odd angle and willing it through the door. Molly directed him where to put it down. 

                "Um, Mu-" Oliver elbowed her in the ribs. "-a'am.  Would you mind terribly telling us, what day it is?" Ginny said shakily. 

                "I believe it's the 25th." Molly said cheerily. When she saw them waiting she whispered, "Of June?" As if ashamed they didn't know. A chubby toddler knocked into Ginny's knees, and she looked down, dazed. A small freckled boy stuck his arms in her face. 

                "I want to hold you." He whispered. Ginny had the distinct impression that it was like he was asking her to go to bed with him. She looked up at Molly, looking absolutely horrified.

                "He wants you to pick him up." Molly sounded exasperated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Ginny gingerly picked him up and looked at Molly for approval. The little boy toyed with her hair lovingly. Molly beamed. 

                "He's such a little lady-killer. Our Charlie." Ginny almost dropped the boy. He laughed, as if it were a game. Naturally, this was Charlie, she should have thought of it before. He showed her a purple cup he was holding. 

                "This is my cup." He delivered it flawlessly as a pick-up line. 

                "Oh." She steadied herself. Her near infant older brother was hitting on her by telling her about his personal dishware. It was a little surreal. Bill came downstairs, looking complete except for his knees, hair and nose. "Hello, little chap, how old are you?"  He showed her with twitching fingers, "Uh…" Ginny looked at Molly hopelessly confused. 

                "He's seven. This many, Bill!" Molly showed him with her own hands. "He gets a little odd after performing spells on himself. I'm starting to think it'll be part of his system forever. He gets hold of my wand at least ten times every damn day." 

                "Mum, you aren't supposed to say damn in front of us!" Bill tugged at his Mother's dress. 

                "William!" Molly looked horrorstruck. "Where do you learn these words? Those are naughty words! NAUGHTY WORDS!" She roared. Bill looked terrified and windswept. 

                "Well. We'll just be going now." Oliver pulled at Ginny, who set down Charlie. 

                "Oh, thank you for the table. I don't know why exactly-" She said quite frankly. 

                "Oh well…" Oliver seemed at a loss for words. Ginny and he started for the door. Ginny patted herself quickly down, trying to gain her composure. They started down the steps. 

                "Hold on a second. I don't have my wand." Ginny turned back. Something darted past them.

                "WILLIAM WALLACE WEASLEY!" 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "I pity your mother, I swear I do. Having kids like that all the time. Seven of them." Oliver threw his hands up in the air. They were sharing an ice cream in Ottery St. Catchpole. It was lucky Oliver was carrying around Muggle money. They only had enough for a few meals, not enough to get Ginny new clothes. She was getting odd stares. 

                "She never had seven living under the roof at one time." Ginny explained. "By the time I was born, Bill was in school full time. I've been trying to work that out and everything. He's seven now, so what year would it be?" 

                "What year did he start Hogwarts?" Oliver asked. Ginny shrugged. "What year was he in when you were born?" 

                "2ND." Ginny answered definitely. She was catching on… "and I was born in 86' so…"

                "86 minus 12." Oliver fiddled with the spoon of the ice cream. "It's 1974." 

                "I figured it was the 70's. Have you seen some of these clothes?" Ginny snorted. She sighed. "The sun's going down on our first day in the past." 

                "That was poetic." Oliver watched her. Ginny ignored him.

                "So, I figure we should catch the Knight Bus eventually. Do you have the fare? I don't have any money." She gestured at her clothing. "Obviously. I guess I'm lucky I wasn't wearing the pj's Harry likes."

She shuddered and Oliver laughed. 

                "I bet I have the fare." He said finally, wiping his eyes. Ginny nodded. "Where are we headed? The Knight Bus doesn't go to Hogsmeade." 

                "Maybe it does in this time." Oliver stared at her incredulously. "But if it doesn't, we'll head for Diagon Alley. We can figure out what to do once we're in a better place. 

                "Okay." He finished up the ice cream. A group of teenagers passed by them and laughed at Ginny's pajamas. 

                "Christ Almighty. Look at those pants." Ginny seemed in disgusted awe. "Where do you get spray paint that color? I'm so glad I missed this decade." Oliver helped her up. It got steadily darker and finally, looking around carefully they lit their wands and summoned the Knight Bus. It arrived with a bang. A man in his late 20's stepped onto the curb and smiled at them.

                "Me name's Ernie Prang. Welcome to the Knight Bus.  What're you wearing ,girl?" He stared at Ginny, who edged behind Oliver. 

                "How much to go to Hogsmeade?" Oliver asked. Ernie squinted at him. 

                "Don't go to Hogsmeade, too many charms around it." 

                "London then, how much to London?" Ernie checked a chart.

                "Sorry, new at this job." He looked back up at them. "Eleven sickles to London. For thirteen you can have hot chocolate. Fifteen for a toothbrush and hot water bottle, and a Galleon for the lot." 

                "Two of the lot." Oliver handed him two galleons. Ernie let them on and escorted them to the beds right next to the driver, a young, bubbly woman with wild blonde curls and bright pink robes. Ginny elbowed Oliver when she caught him staring. He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. 

                "Hi there! I'm Allegory Robbins, but you can call me Buttons!" She giggled and swung the wheel wildly, causing an entire house to jump out of their way.  Oliver's expression turned abruptly somber and he sat down on the bed. 

                "Hi Buttons." Ginny said cheerily, accepting her hot chocolate, toothbrush and water bottle. She hung her robe up on a peg and climbed into the bed, pressing her feet comfortably into the warm water bottle and sipping down her hot chocolate quickly. She handed the cup to an eager Ernie Prang and curled up, toothbrush in fist, and finally fell to sleep. 

                She woke up a bit later with Oliver rubbing her back and shaking her. "Hmmm?" She sat up shakily. The bed seemed to have moved a foot or two. Oliver looked positively green. He handed her her slippers and robe and gestured for them to get out. "Are we at the Leaky Cauldron?" She asked, stretching her arms above her head. He nodded and she pulled on her robe and slipped on her slippers. She grabbed the hot water bottle and checked her new toothbrush and old wand. They got out and the Knight Bus disappeared with a bang. Oliver disposed of the ice cream they had in a flowerpot. Ginny winced and rubbed his back. "Poor Oliver, come on." 

                "We were the last stop on the list. They even let the people that come on after us get off before us. It's nearly dawn. I hate them… and I hate Buttons. I hate her."

                "You didn't seem to mind her before." Ginny said sweetly, Oliver shot her a death glare. The bell rang lightly in the Leaky Cauldron. Embers were mildly flaring in the fireplace. Tom, whom she recognized, entered in a nightshirt and cap. He smiled at them. Ginny counted six teeth. 

                "Hello. Can I get something for you?" He continued to grin, though it began to slip as he looked over Ginny's clothes. 

                "Please sir, we don't have any money. Unless you're taking Muggle money?" Oliver said desperately. Ginny looked at Oliver, alarmed, what did he mean they didn't have any money? Tom shook his head. 

                "I don't take pounds, young master." He said gravely. 

                "Do you have a back room where we could kip for the night?" Oliver flushed. "I wouldn't ask sir, except, we have no where to go. We need to contact Albus Dumbledore."

                "Albus Dumbledore? Won't be able to speak to him until the Hogwarts term." Ginny and Oliver looked at each other, faces crumpling. Whatever were they going to do. 

                "Why not? If you don't mind me asking?" Ginny piped up, trying not to cry.

                "I certainly don't. He's at that Wizengamot trial for the wizard Grindelwald, who finally is scheduled for an appeal. Dumbledore was the one to defeat him." Tom said with pride, as though he had done it himself. "They've got a gag order and all the council's got a check on their mail. Ain't nobody but the Mistress of Magic allowed to write to them now. You'll have to wait for the next term. Are you Hogwarts students?" He squinted at them. 

                "Yes." Ginny said at the same time that Oliver said they weren't. "I am, he isn't." She said when he looked at them suspiciously. "Anyway, we're very tired. Is there anyway-?" She looked at the old man, pleading with him silently. He frowned for a moment and then broke into another grin. 

                "Sure you can! And I wouldn't put you in no backroom. Come on up. I've only got one available room, is that alright?" He looked between the two of them before continuing without letting them answer. "You look like you're starving, the both of you. Have you had anything to eat today?" Both shook their heads. "Well, bless my soul, you'll have to eat before anything." He warmed up a thick, hearty stew for them. Ginny gratefully gulped down the chunks of carrot, beef and potato. It all seemed to melt in their mouths. When they were finally in their room, they quickly prepared for bed and fell in together, not caring that one was next to the other, completely exhausted. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "Hey Wesley! How long does it take to get a couple bloody butterbeers?" Ginny gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes at Tom who uncapped the bottles and set them on her tray. He smiled at her. 

                "Don't worry about them." He whispered and pinched her cheek. She beamed and carried over the four butterbeers setting them in front of the four boys who came in everyday. And she was never happy to see them. Potter, Lupin, Black and Pettigrew. The Marauders. 

                Her and Oliver were posing as The Wesleys, a couple struggling to stay together and make ends meet. They had taken a more permanent residence in a small flat in Diagon Alley. Oliver had gotten a job in the Ministry of Magic and Ginny worked at the Leaky Cauldron for Tom. He was stubborn at first, he had never hired help before, but when she saved him from a rampaging customer he reconsidered. Her and Oliver ate over here everyday, they played with the grandchildren and waited until they could catch the Hogwarts Express ,September 1st , to Hogwarts and get the whole mess sorted out. Ginny found herself enjoying the 70s in spite of herself. The clothes were atrocious, sure, but she was getting used to them, and it seemed that robes hadn't changed extraordinarily, so the wizarding world was much the same. Fashion wise, at least. Ginny sighed and wished for her family, for hundredth time that week. She had been working for almost a month and had another month to go. When she went back to her family, at least she would have lots of money. Tom refused to charge them for anything and had even bought Ginny all her robes. He wouldn't take pay, only insisting that she never wear her pajamas in public ever again. She gladly complied. 

                "Hey Wesley!" Ginny shook out of her reverie and set down the butterbeers in front of each boy. "Won't you join us, for one?" Sirius pulled at her robes and gestured to the seat. She was tempted, he was one of the best looking boys she had ever known, but she shook her head. 

                "Come on, Wesley." James moaned, pulling at her from the other side. "When are you going to go on a date with me?" 

                "I don't date children." She whispered furiously and pulled her robes away from them. A woman was pulling at them from another angle so she turned around and bent over to take the faintly talking women's order.  "Ma'am," she whispered, "We don't serve chilled blood here." 

                "I'll have it warm, then." The woman whispered in an even quieter voice. Ginny jumped up abruptly. She had just felt a hand on her ass. She turned around quickly, Sirius and James were pointing at one another then laughed and pointed at a blushing Remus. 

                "I didn't, honest." He stuttered. Tom came behind her. 

                "I won't have you harassing my wait staff, Potter." He said furiously. Ginny blushed, Potter wasn't anything to shake a stick at either.

                "Sorry, Tom." Was the mumbled response. Tom broke out in a grin and pushed down the bill of Potter's cap. 

                "Don't let it happen, again." He failed to sound stern. "Can't say I blame you though." He pinched Ginny on the cheek, the one on her face. 

                "Honestly, Tom." She blushed, she didn't mind his teasing. "This woman wants to order blood." She whispered, pointing at the woman who was pulling at her robes again.

                "Mary!" Tom shouted. "I've told you again and again, no blood!" He roared. "How about some tomato juice, or a bloody Mary?" 

                "Con cerveza, me amigo." She shouted back at him. 

                "Make her  Bloody Mary with beer, will you?" Tom ushered her away. Ginny served it to the woman who smiled at her with shiny, black teeth. The Marauders persuaded her to join them for a butterbeer. Tom waved her down in the seat. She took a long pull off the butterbeer and shook her head like she had just taken a shot of hard liquor. They stared at her. 

                "Don't ask." She said. "So you guys are heading back to Hogwarts in September?" 

                "Yeah, but we don't want to talk about that. We want to talk about you." 

Peter said adoringly. She smiled in spite of herself. Peter really seemed like a sweet guy. Too bad she knew he wasn't. "We'll be in fifth year." He blushed as if he had said something really revealing. She was two years older than them.  

"Will you be going to Hogwarts?" Remus wanted to know. Ginny shook her head. 

"I don't think so, mate." She fiddled with the label of her butterbeer. 

"Then why are you and Oliver going to be riding the Hogwarts Express?" Sirius asked. Ginny

 brushed his hand away from her knee. 

                "Who told you we were riding the Hogwarts express?" She said squeakily. 

                "Tom." James said, "Ginny will you ride with me?" 

                "No James." She made to stand and was pulled back into place by eight separate fists. 

                "Yeah, Prongs, she wants to ride with me, and me alone." Sirius wrapped his arm around Ginny's shoulders and puffed out his chest. 

                "Yeah right, Padfoot!" Remus punched him in the arm. "She wants the sweet, strong, silent type." 

                "No way, Moony!" Peter punched Remus in turn. "She wants the cute one." 

                "Then she wouldn't pick you, Wormtail!" Remus shot back.

                "You guys have such odd nicknames." Ginny said thoughtfully, knowing why and enjoy their faces as they realized their mistake. 

                "Uh-oh guys, it's the hubby." Sirius whispered. Ginny felt a hand lay across her shoulder and give a squeeze. She looked up into the stormy eyes of Oliver. Sirius pulled his arm away and coughed. 

                "See you guys later." She was pulled up by her arm and picked their butterbeers up and set them down on the counter. Oliver pulled her into the corner. 

                "I thought I said I didn't want you hanging with that lot."

                "They really are sweet guys, Oliver, if you only…" She broke off as he scowled. "You know I wouldn't cheat on you. Remember, we're married." She and Oliver had gotten together shortly after they had arrived. He got extremely jealous, a trait she hated in men. They hadn't gotten married… yet.

                "You were acting like you were going to cheat on Potter that day, the day we arrived." Oliver shot back at her, scowling furiously. 

                "Don't you bring Harry into this…" As much as she loved Oliver, being apart from Harry was rough. She had, after all, been madly in love with him from the first. 

                "I'LL BRING POTTER INTO IT IF I WANT TO." He roared. Ginny glanced over at the Marauders, James met her eyes before quickly bringing them back to stare at his butterbeer. Sirius seemed to be cracking up. Oliver pulled her face back to look at him. "THAT'S NOT HARRY POTTER! DON'T CONFUSE ONE WITH THE OTHER!" Her chin trembled and she pulled away from him, ripping off her apron and throwing it in his face. 

                "I'm not! You're the only one who seems to be confused." She whispered furiously. She ran sobbing into the back alley, leaning against the trash can around the entrance and sobbing furiously. A hand patted her gently on the cheek and offered her a lacy handkerchief. She wiped her eyes and looked up to see the woman who had order chilled blood. 

                "There, there." She croaked. "Men are awful creatures." She clucked her purple, forked tongue. "My name's Mary Caldwell by the way, I'm a professor at Hogwarts. Defense Against Dark Arts." Ginny nodded, strangely comforted by this otherworldly sort of woman. "I'm her with my niece, Abigail." 

                "It's Pita, Aunt Mary." Ginny looked up to see the most beautiful girl she had ever seen in her entire life appear from the shadows. She had her nose pierced, Ginny instantly wanted one of the same. She wore Muggle clothes, tight fitting jeans and a tiny cashmere sweater, but ones seemingly from Ginny's time. She had waist-length blue hair tied in French-braided pigtails. "Stands for pain in the ass." She informed Ginny haughtily.  

                "Pita's an auror." Mary Caldwell said matter – of – factly. 

                "Auntie, they don't have those yet." Pita said through gritted teeth, rolling her eyes. She pulled out her wand, Ginny suspected to perform a memory charm. She wiped her eyes and sniffed loudly. 

                "I know what an Auror is." She said urgently. "Are you… are you from the future?" She whispered, blinking rapidly to keep tears of happiness from her eyes. Pita and Mary exchanged horrified looks. Pita leaned forward with her wand.

                Ginny stumbled into the pub, taking her apron from a confused Oliver, who stumbled out of the pub. She smiled blearily at Tom and poured herself a shot of Firewhisky, taking it quickly and shaking her head. The effect was almost instantaneous, she sagged to the floor and giggled into her apron "What's wrong with ya, Ginny? I saw Oliver yelling at you and saw you leave, but you know you can't take alcohol." Tom sounded more exasperated with Oliver than her. She blinked at him and snorted. 

                "Oliver, yelling at me. Honestly, Tom, where do you come up with these things?" She laughed a little too hard and pulled herself to her feet. "Hey look, the Marauders!" She yelled and waved. They waved back, looking confused. Tom finally understood. 

                "Alright, goddammit! Whose performed a memory charm on my serving girl?" She disappeared under the counter again. Tom heaved a sigh and, finding no guilty party, went to set Ginny up in cot in the back. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny woke up with a splitting headache, and she didn't recognize her surroundings at first. Then she recognized the back room of the Leaky Cauldron and groaned. What had happened? Things came back in bits and pieces. She took a swill of Tom's Hangover Concoction. She blinked her eyes as everything came back into focus. She heard voices from the front, she started to swing the door open, but stopped. "She's a nice enough girl, dodgy husband, though. Yells at her like he shouldn't." She recognized Tom's voice and another one she recognized that sent her heart soaring answered. 

                "And you say she said what when she was talking in her sleep?" Albus Dumbledore whispered.

                "Started talking about you and getting to the future. I don't know whether it's true or not, even though she asks if she can contact you about every damn day. I'm sending her and her husband on the Hogwarts Express, you can speak to them when they arrive. She's in the back now, can't take alcohol for damn, but as soon as she'd had that memory charm she went in and threw one back. I usually try to cut her off after a few butterbeers." Tom chuckled. 

                "Alright, thank you, Tom." There was a pop and Ginny pushed the door open. 

                "You could have called me, you know." She said grumpily, coming to sit next to him. He looked up at her startled. 

                "I thought you'd have been down for the rest of the night. You're an odd girl, taking Ogden's like that." Tom shook his head. "Don't become a drunk now." 

                "It helps you to remember things after you've had a memory charm. I learned it when I was a kid and I kept walking in on Mommy and Daddy time." She winced. "I suppose I was sort of a drunk back then. I didn't really want to remember, but it was like instinct or something. I remember a little bit. I remember that woman who ordered the blood and someone else, who was a pain in the ass. They were the one's that did it. I don't remember why. And I remember the Marauder's." She scratched her head and shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Now, how come you get to talk to Dumbledore when no one can?" 

                "It don't matter." He ruffled her hair at her disgusted look and handed her the week's pay.  "Have yourself a good weekend." She smiled at him and scratched her head. 

                "I suppose I will." He sighed and watched her peacefully. 

                "You're becoming like a daughter to me, lass." She blushed. 

                "Tom…"

                "No, I mean it. You'll come visit us, won't you?" She sighed, she would miss Tom when she got back to the future. 

                "Whenever I can." She whispered. He beamed again and gave her a little shove.

                "Get home to that damn husband of yours." He smiled. 

                "Tom, I'm sorry I haven't been completely…" He waved away her explanation. 

                "I can see your heart, Ginny. It's never looked dishonest from here." He patted his own chest, and Ginny found herself running out before she burst into tears. She entered Diagon Alley and walked down the dark, deserted alley. What time was it, anyway? She squinted at her watch in the darkness, wishing she had a glowy thingy like Oliver. She barely had time to yelp as she was pulled deeper into the shadows by a strong pair of arms. She could hardly pant, let alone scream with an arm cutting off most of her air supply. 

                "Go on, give it all to us, lass." A hoarse voice whispered.           

A/N: Hope you enjoyed my first installment. Happy Days! Read and Review please. Flames are welcomed if you are so inclined. If you love it tell me, if you hate it, let me know. 


	2. From One Home to the Other

Disclaimer- All Harry Potter characters and such belong to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury and… Warner Bros. I'm just borrowing them to add my little bit to the world. Love and kisses. 

A/N: So I got a couple of reviews stating that my fuzzy math was positively hairy. Unfortunately, it's going to stay that way, because I'm too lazy to go back and refigure everything and I'm rather on a roll. So, sorry to those of you who are loyal to all that timing. Thanks for all the reviews and I hope you fell inclined to add some more.

Chapter Two- From One Home To Another

                Ginny tried hard not to cry. She wouldn't give them her money, she was carefully going over all the self-defense she knew and trying not to faint from lack of air. She thought she heard someone say, "This isn't a nice game", before she spurred into motion. She stepped down hard on the foot, got enough room to turn, put a knee in his groin, an elbow in the solar plexus and a fist to the nose. She made to run back to the Leaky Cauldron, when a wand light nearly blinded her. Tom looked for a moment frightened and then burst into a great belly laugh. 

                "Tom, I just-!" She was speechless, she ran crying into his arms. "How can you laugh?"

                "I think you gave Mr. Potter a right turn." She turned around in disbelief her fear turning abruptly to anger. James sat in the wand light looking in immense pain. Sirius was trying to help him up and Peter was looking regretfully at her. Remus thudded up behind them. 

                "They didn't." He sounded disbelieving. "You got what you deserved, James." He snapped and looked to Ginny. "I'd like to shake your hand." Ginny instead ran into his arms. 

                "I always liked you." She whispered, more than herself to anyone. Remus pulled away, surprised. "Thanks a lot… Moony." She waved to him and Tom and started back down the alley, stopping by James to give him a good kick in the shin.  "And you!" She pointed to Sirius, who cowered. She moved the finger to Peter who blushed and kicked a stone lazily, which hit James on the leg. He groaned and Ginny stuck her tongue out at him. Making sure she had her wand out, she continued towards the flat. She arrived without mishap, Oliver was drunk. Luckily, he was a happy drunk.

                "Ginny. I'm so sorry about today." He stumbled over to her with a drink in his hand. He handed one to Ginny, who set it down on the counter behind him. 

                "I've had quite enough, thank you. And you're forgiven. Even though you were being a right git and I want you to know it." He nodded sadly and she kissed him gently, prying the glass from his hand and setting it behind him next to her untouched one. They pulled away for a moment to take care of the business of shirts and then continued. 

                "Ginny. Ginny, Ginny, Ginny." Oliver whispered in her ear still working at her bra. She ran her hands up and down his chest. He was probably the most attractive guy she had ever been with. 

                And she was a girl who had run into her fair share of guys she felt she could jump in the sack with. First, there was Seamus Finnigan. The ever-smiling, charming Irishman. And Harry thought his interview with Rita Skeeter had been the turn around for Seamus. He was lithe and attentive, she was happy he was her first. She had been dating Michael Corner, a small detail she had left out when telling Ron why they broke up. Oh well, no harm done. Then, there was Neville. She wasn't sure at first, but he was so sweet and needy. She had started to love the pudgy sweetheart. She had known she was genuinely falling for him, and so they decided to… do it. All of fifth year, then something happened. He backed away and Harry moved in to comfort her broken heart, by reminding her who exactly she had really been in love with all that time. She always thought that maybe Harry had had something to do with Neville, but had been so blissful with the boy- who- lived that it never occurred to her to ask or , for that matter, care. She slept with Harry more quickly than with Neville, or even with Seamus, who was most definitely spur of the moment. Maybe for him more than her, she was always a little insecure in their relationship. At least at first. They had been pretty healthy and normal by the end of it. And Oliver, what could she say, Oliver was great. 

                He sighed in her ear and rolled over, falling to sleep almost instantly. She pulled on her old robe, leaving it open and trailing, to deposit her money into the large jar they lovingly called Gringotts, and moved to clean up the kitchen. She sniffed at the glass that Oliver had been drinking from and blanched. Good thing she hadn't had any of that. She poured them out in the sink, after taking a quick sip from her cup. He had remembered to significantly water it down. Good boy. She yawned as she wiped down the counters and rinsed the dishes. She did a quick walk through of the flat and picked up clothes and other things that Oliver had managed to toss around during the day. It was a nightly routine for her, and it was comforting. She was starting to understand why the house become spotless and the food delicious when her mother was under considerable stress. 

                Her mother. Ginny sat down with a pang in a mothy armchair they had purchased, second- hand. Her family. They were all so wonderful and giving and kind and… tears rose up in her eyes and a lump  constricted her throat. She gratefully sobbed, wringing a shirt of Oliver's in her hands mournfully. She was so busy, she rarely had time to emote. She constantly remembered. Every time she looked  in the mirror she was reminded of hair, every shade of red, curly and straight. Freckles, a sprinkling across the nose and rainy days spent mapping out constellations on arms and legs with a felt marker. Brotherly kisses and hugs, warm arms, a ratty crocheted shoulder to cry on. She cried for longing and family that Oliver and Tom couldn't provide, no matter how they tried. She cried because the faces that had once stood out so well in her mind now blurred when she tried to recall them. It had only been a month, and already she felt as though she had spent years in the body of Ginny Wesley, longing for the two lives to join. What she wouldn't give to be working the Leaky Cauldron with Tom in 2004. To be able to go home at night and find solace in the arms of… who? 

                Oliver and Harry were polar opposites as far as looks went, but when you came down to their personalities, they were similar creatures. Loving, irresistible and teasing. An awful jealous streak, though Harry didn't yell like Oliver. They both liked to hold her in public and take long walks in the city and country alike. She dreaded to get either of them started on Quidditch. They were more obsessed than she, and that was saying something. Both were industrious and hard-working, but fun-loving at the most appropriate and inappropriate of times. Neither of them liked to read, an infuriating habit. When she returned to the future, as if these months had not passed by, walking out of the kitchen as though they had been in there only seconds, what was she to do when her two loves stood face to face? When they stared each other down, and Harry wasn't sure why? 

                Oliver had been with her, here. They had struggled to make ends meet, to put robes on their backs. She and Harry had never shared that. Never shared the pain of being young and old at the same time. Harry, Hermione and Ron had joined with those struggles, but Ginny had never been offered to share that with the Dream Team. Oliver and she were a couple by consequence and physical attraction, Harry and her shared something more spiritual. Harry had always had her family's blessings, she wasn't sure she could tell them about this time she spent in the past. Wasn't sure how to explain that she had been the funny girl in the story they had always been told about the scrubbed wooden table in the kitchen. That she finally understood why Tom in the Leaky Cauldron eyes always filled with tears when he saw her and why he always treated the family like royalty. That people she thought she never knew, she still didn't know yet, loved her. There were things that she couldn't share with her family anymore, things that didn't relate to partying and boys, normal things she hid from them. 

                She was different now, different from her family. It was if the past was pulling her from the impending future. How she longed to return to the days when she didn't remember the 70's, when she saw a group of friends not torn apart by the future. It made all the deaths of the future that much harder in the past, in the flesh.

 The world here was safe,  people didn't talk in shadows. Old friends weren't spies or under any sort of suspicion, they were old friends. You could trust people, setting down your wand for a moment or sleeping soundly didn't put your life in danger. And yet, having that safety and security always at her side made her more wary of the shock and pain that the future would bring. After all, hadn't someone once said, those who are happiest in war are those who have never been in peace? She had lived in wary peace most of her life, and the war had come as more of a relief than anything. Now this absolute, assured calm where magic was magic and the dark arts would never rule, was unsettling. Especially for someone who could currently make a fortune as a seer. And she could see unexpected storm clouds on the blurry horizon. 

*                                              *                                              *                                              *                                              They had decided to split everything when they got back. They spent their last week together selling furniture and dishes, buying a trunk and packing memorabilia and money. Ginny lovingly packed her all her robes and clothes from the 70's vowing to wear them at least once a week. They saved a few magazines and all the pictures they could find. Ginny posed in hot pants and bellbottoms with tube-tops and other fashionable flowery tops. Oliver displayed what he affectionately called his Gringo Afro along with some of his own Muggle attire. Ginny was starting to genuinely love her flowy 70's style hair and was wondering how she was going to explain to the others exactly how it was that it happened. 

That was how the day found her, on August 31, wandering around Muggle London peering in every store she encountered. She wanted something to remember these two eventful months. Teetering around in those ridiculous heels that had water and glitter swirling around in the heel and the part that elevated the toe, wearing absurdly tight pants, except for the bottoms, and sporting a loose sports top, she was shopping. She lowered her huge sunglasses and brushed a feathery strand of hair from her face. There came the Marauders, probably on their way to the Leaky Cauldron. They looked like a bunch of confused drag queens, dressed in robes as they were. 

"Hey Wesley!" Sirius waved, and she smiled. Their reconciliation had come about being about as lengthy as James' healing . Speaking of the little mugger, he ruffled his hair and approached her, puffing out his chest. She was his and Sirius' height in these heels, and little taller than Remus and a lot taller than Peter, who was her same height when she was on level ground.

                "Cut it out, Prongs," She chided. "It doesn't work on me." He smiled at her use of his nickname. 

                "You're just feeling yourself being overpowered. Your hand is reaching for that ring," he gestured to her wedding ring, "and wants to toss it into the gutter and jump into my arms for a snog." He winked at her and she rolled her eyes. 

                Her and Oliver had to decided to get married after all. They had agreed it was for memories and for a support network and viable proof for inquiring folks. They couldn't deny, however, that they could stay together in the future without unwanted explanation and acknowledged that they would probably separate in the future. Ginny wondered how it would feel to be a married woman in the future, where no one even knew about it. And when she brought out that marriage license, let them all see the date of marriage. July 28, 1974. She had finally confessed all to Tom and he and Mary Caldwell were witnesses at Ministry of Magic that day. She had pictures of her in a white sundress and Oliver in rented dress robes, kissing and cutting a cake back at the Leaky Cauldron. 

                 "What are you out in the real world for?" Peter wanted to know, watching two attractive woman as they made their way past the group. 

                "I'm looking for something to take home with me." She said. 

                "We'll go with you to Diagon Alley," James suggest hopefully. 

                "Oh, I suppose so, I certainly haven't found anything out here." She finally said, exasperated with her luck. Sirius got excited. 

                "SHOPPING TRIP!" He shrieked shrilly, drawing stares. Ginny blushed and let them usher her back through the Leaky Cauldron. She waved to Tom who offered her a free butterbeer. 

                "On these heels, you've got to be kidding." She whispered. He laughed and instead gave her Fizzy Pumpkin Juice, something she dearly wished they had in the future. 

                "So what do you want?" James asked. 

                "I don't know." She admitted. 

                "Gobstones?" Peter pointed to a golden set in the window. 

                "No." She shook her head. "That's not it."

                "A broom?" James said hopefully. 

                "No."

                "How about a nice book?" Sirius smiled. 

                "Nope."

                "How about a pet?" Remus asked. 

                "N- yeah." She nodded. That wasn't a bad idea. Remus led them into a people free pet crowded shop. Ginny had been in there before, but only because it was an enduring business. She glanced at rats, and found herself looking at Peter who smiled. 

                "They're cute, huh?" He acknowledged, poking at the cage. 

                "Adorable." They peered into cages of all kinds, but nothing seemed right. A cat jumped up on the counter next to where they were looking. Ginny did a double-take. It was the most beautiful cat she had ever seen. It had a hundred colors within its fur, it was small and delicate with curved ears that reminded Ginny of horns. She rang the bell next to the cat, who rubbed her head on Ginny's knuckles. A young woman appeared looking as though she had just woken up. She brushed messy hair out of her eyes and smiled at Ginny. 

                "What can I do for you, doll?" She brushed the cat lovingly with the back of her hand.                 

                "This cat, is it for sale?" Ginny smiled at the woman, willing it so. The Marauders had joined in on the petting of the cat and she was clearly and audibly enjoying it. 

                "Pita? No." That name sounded tantalizingly familiar. The cat on the counter suddenly became an unfairly attractive woman and Ginny recognized her. 

                "You!" She accused. James, Remus and Peter took their hands away quickly. Sirius, who had been scratching the cat's chest, winked at her. James pulled him back. "Down boy!" Ginny said. 

                "You aren't supposed to remember me." Pita whispered. 

                "Well, I do. And when I get to where I came from…" Pita understood and gasped. "I'm going to report you to the authorities." Pita looked relieved and laughed. 

                "I am the authorities." She whispered. Her nose suddenly wiggled and became like a pig's. "Boo." 

                "TONKS!" Ginny threw her arms around her. The Marauder's looked confused, as did the woman behind the counter. Tonks looked around her at The Marauder's,  she paled. 

                "Is that…?" Ginny nodded. It took her a moment to recover. "What are you doing here?" 

                "I don't know, exactly. It was weird. What year did you come from?" Tonks thought a moment. 

"Your fourth year. The summer. You're currently in number 12."

                "Oh!" So Tonks didn't know that Sirius was dead, yet. "I'm going into 7th year, I'll be back soon."

                "I wish I could help you out." Tonks said, Ginny was aware that everyone was trying to listen in on their murmured conversation. "But Ministry business is Ministry business and it would come over weird if I brought someone back." 

                "Is there any sort of time travel device that dictates time and place?" 

                "Yeah, there is. Good luck getting a Death Spinner in this time, though." Tonks patted her on the shoulder and then said louder. "So you want a cat? Well, you're in luck, cause I just had kittens." She pointed Ginny to the back and shut the door. She put a soundproof charm on the door and gestured Ginny to the box of kittens. 

"Tonks, you didn't really…" Ginny looked in disbelief at the adorable little balls of fur.   
"Nah, I was just imitating their Mommy." A cat jumped onto her lap and then into the box. 

"Are they ready to live without her?" Ginny asked and Tonks nodded. There were two kittens with

 their mama's ears. Ginny picked them up and surveyed them both up. One of them had salt and pepper hair and bright blue eyes. The other she thought was black, until a beam of sunlight hit it and she found that it was an extremely dark shade of red. She looked into the green, black flecked eyes. "This is the weirdest looking cat I think I've ever seen." She set the other one back in the box. "I want…" She ignored the kitten's squeals at the indignity, "her." She said softly. 

                "Yeah, good choice." Tonks brushed the hair back on the cat. 

                "So, you look different." Ginny studied Tonks unusual change.

                "It's my disguise, Pita." She presented herself happily. "I'm here for a month. I saw you on my first day here, and I panicked. Sorry. How did you remember-"

                "Alcohol." Ginny said dryly. 

                "So I'll see you when I get back?" Tonks said softly. She suddenly somber. 

                "You will. You know something." She accused. 

                "You'll know, eventually." Tonks let Ginny out and closed the door behind her. Everyone stepped back from the door and looked around guiltily. She purchased the kitten and supplies for her care. The kitten clawed up to her shoulder and looked around loftily. Everyone laughed. Sirius shouldered the kitten's 'diaper bag' and they left. 

                "Did you hear anything?" She accused and they shook their heads. 

                "You tampered with the room. We couldn't figure out what spell it was." Peter accused back. 

                "What will you call her?" Remus now had the kitten in his hands. 

                "Diabla." Was the confident reply. "Do you guys want to go back to the flat with me?" They had never been there. "It's empty, because we're moving out and all, but I think I can rustle something up." They exchanged looks and followed her. Ginny bumped into someone and pulled back; she had knocked all these woman's things out of her arms. 

                "Sorry, excuse me." She apologized and then paused. This was Lily Evans, Harry's mother. 

                "Oh, it was my fault." She said, smiling broadly. "Grabbing my school supplies at the last minute,  I get so rushed." She rolled her eyes. Ginny smiled back and knelt to help her with it all.

                "Hey Wesley, what's the hold up, are we going to your flat or not?" Ginny blushed. James' statement sounded like it implied something. She wondered if James and Lily were dating yet. Apparently not. Ginny was amazed at Lily's quick change of expression. She quickly gathered the rest of the packages and stormed away. 

                "Thanks a lot." She said to Ginny and disappeared into the crowd. James sighed and looked back at her. He looked wistful 

                "Prongs has it bad." Sirius patted him on the back. James pulled away Ginny led them the rest of the way to her flat and she was greeted by Oliver. He frowned at the Marauders, but was so thrilled with the kitten that his bad mood was soon remedied. She gave them a quick tour and then fixed up chicken soup by magic. It was received enthusiastically. She let Oliver and the Marauders get to know each other better for the afternoon and they seemed to get along slightly better. They all headed down to the Leaky Cauldron for dinner and Tom closed early for the enthusiastic farewell supper. They couldn't talk about time travel because of the Marauders, but it was fun all the same.  The aforementioned foursome couldn't understand. 

                "You'll see him whenever you want." James said to Ginny of Tom. She had to grab more drinks from the back to cry. She could see Tom soon, but he had to wait 30 years for her to understand and go to see him. She came back and handed everyone butterbeers and had Fizzy Pumpkin Juice for herself. Oliver took her hand under the table and fiddled with her ring with his fingers. Ginny looked up at him and he gave her hand a squeeze. She was a married woman and practically a different person. How could she leave the kitchen like the carefree girl she had been just two month's previously, or rather 30 years ahead? How could they do as Oliver and she had agreed, separate like acquaintances and have her go back to Harry? She wasn't sure about Harry anymore, no matter what she had thought only a month ago. 

                She spent that night in the arms of Oliver, her husband, and was sure that it was their last. They made love and then sat up the rest of the night. One with the other. Ginny cried into his bare chest and he cried into her glorious hair. 

                *                                              *                                              *                                              *

                They slept for awhile on the train. After they woke, Oliver played with Diabla while Ginny read a book that Tom had recommended. They were quiet for a long time, comfortable quiet. The only noises were the kitten and pages turning. A different little old lady came with the trolley cart and Ginny was grateful; her stomach had been rumbling uncomfortably. They worked their way through a case of pumpkin pasties and a couple of Fizzy Pumpkin Juices. Oliver and Diabla settled down for another nap and Ginny, bored out of her mind, left to explore. She wandered the train, vaguely looking for a bathroom. She found one, to her surprise, and pushed open the door. James Potter fumbled and cursed. Ginny turned around with her eyes covered. "Sorry. Sorry!" She twitched uncomfortably and fumbled with the door. "It was open."

                "My mistake. Leave it, I'm almost done." He said. She hummed loudly. "Okay, done." 

                "Why couldn't I have just left?" She asked, maneuvering around him so he could wash his hands. She jumped uncomfortably from foot to foot, finally putting her jacket over her lap, she disposed of her previous Fizzy Pumpkin Juices. 

                "Uh… whenever you open the door, the whole world can see the occupants." James was turned around, so she performed a little modesty magic that every teenage girl learns and they shifted so she could wash her own hands. "So, Wesley?" Ginny looked at him, sitting on the toilet seat with his head in his hands. 

                "Hmmm?" She asked, drying her hands on a paper towel and aiming it for the little trashcan. It missed. James put it in there for her. They exited one at a time and she ran into Lily Evans for the second time in a rather incriminating suggestion of her and James. 

                "Hi." She blushed as James appeared beside her and the pretty girl frowned. "No damage from my clumsiness, I hope." She said trying to continue a conversation while Lily glared and James mooned. Ginny elbowed James in the stomach when he started to ruffle his hair. 

                "No, everything was fine." She glared at them both a moment longer and left. 

                "I never did anything to her." Ginny cried. "Why is she glaring at me like that?"

                "She thinks you're shagging her worst enemy." James sighed. "What would you do?" 

                "Oh… I know. I had the greatest comeback for this. I didn't know you were a lesbian and they say what do you mean or why or something and then you say, cause he has no dick. Yeah?" James chuckled and ruffled her hair as if she were a girl instead of his elder. 

                "Yeah." 

                "So why does she hate you?" They looked at the corner that Lily had disappeared behind. 

                "She thinks I'm conceited, you know, that I have a big head." James admitted. 

                "You are. But you're still very likable." Ginny leaned against the wall. 

                "And devastatingly handsome?" He waggled his eyebrows. 

                "You'll do." She started walking away. "And that'll do." He caught her sleeve and she turned to look at him, he looked for a moment as thought he didn't know why he had grabbed her. 

                "The husband-"

                "Oliver." Ginny corrected.

                "Oliver." He repeated. "When he's yelling at you about hanging out with us, which happens fairly frequently and isn't very nice…" Ginny nodded and motioned for him to continue. "Well, when he starts yelling about Potter and stuff, is he talking about me?" Ginny hadn't expected that and talked slowly, so she could choose her words wisely.

                "Partly. But he also talks about an ex of mine, of sorts, kind of a future ex…" James looked confused, she shook her head. "Sorry, that's not the point. The point is, He seems to think I'm confusing one Potter with the other, which isn't true because I'm married. Very happily married," She added as he opened his mouth. "So, no, James. He doesn't need to talk about you." She started to push herself away from the wall, but he put an arm beside her head and one around her waist. 

                "Are you sure?" He whispered, and leaned in to her. She was for a moment enticed, but the moment gave way to a millimeter of space and she pushed him away with a hand to his chest. 

                "I'm sure." She finally said, staring into his eyes. "I'm married." 

                "Are they the same?" 

                "James." She gave him a firmer push.           

                "Denied!" They both looked opposite of the way Ginny had come and saw Sirius in a fit of giggles, Remus with his eyebrows raised and Peter looking impressed. Sirius and Peter hit a high five. James smiled and shut Ginny's mouth with his thumb. 

                "Come on." He gestured for her to join them and she followed somewhat reluctantly. Throw guy number three in the confusing mix she liked to call Ginny's Life.  

                *                                              *                                              *                                              *

"See, Wesley, you don't know the half of it." James was telling her. 

"I know more about you than you think." She challenged and nodded to the others. "About all of you. You'd be surprised." They exchanged glances. 

"And what would that be?" Sirius, sounded doubtful. 

"Shocking things. Blackmail material." Having put down a few Butterbeers, she was feeling daring. "Like your nicknames." They gasped. 

"How do you-?" Peter whispered. She laughed. "You're bluffing!" He accused. 

                "Oh no, I've got you figured out. Moony, because you're such an awful flirt." Remus laughed. "And you… Padfoot, are sneaky." Sirius rolled his eyes. "And Wormtail." She glanced at his pants and shrugged. "I'm sorry man." Peter blushed and snorted. "Prongs." She whispered. "Prongs…" She seemed to be thinking, he watched her in amusement. "Because of your horns." His jaw dropped. "That or the prongs on your pitchfork." She recovered quickly, coming to her senses and laughing. The Marauders laughed with her. Remus watched her closely however. 

                "You're onto us." He sounded sincere.

                "Oh yeah, I know all." She giggled and started to stand up. She had worn heels and she stumbled unsteadily falling into Remus' arms. He escorted her out and offered to walk her back.

                "You're drunk." He sounded delighted. "No wonder you never…" She hiccuped. 

                "Drank? Yeah. You couldn't tell before?" He saved her from slamming into a wall. 

                "Nope, walking and talking in unison must have been the clincher. I don't think the other guys caught on, though. Should I let them in on the little secret?" He finally propped her up against a wall and let her slide into a sitting position. She let him tussle with the knot tied at her calf.

                "No. They might take advantage of me." She whispered, giggling. He pulled off her first heel and shook it like a snow globe. 

                "What fun." He remarked dryly. "I really won't tell them if you don't want me to." 

                "Don't." She said seriously, offering him her other leg. He slung them behind his back and helped her up, having first to refuse her foot and grab onto her hand. 

                "So, how many did you have, I have no idea where we're going by the way." She pointed straight ahead and flexed her feet uncomfortably. 

                "Four. And it's on the right. Hold on, I have to pee." He let her into the bathroom and set himself in front like a bodyguard, he heard her struggle for a minute. 

                "You need assistance?" He said loudly as he heard a slamming noise.

                "Nope." There was a loud bang and then another slam. "Everything is under control." He doubted it, but didn't say anything. He nodded to a first year, who looked at him with wide eyes as another loud bang came from the bathroom. "M'alright!" Ginny shouted. The first year moved on. He waited another long while and the door opened. He turned around. The toilet lids were askew and pulled off the hinges and the knob was pulled complete off. 

                "How did you do that?"

                "Dunno, had to use the sink." Ginny grabbed onto Remus and they started back to her original compartment. "So, what were we talking at before?" She scratched her nose and made to go into a compartment off to the left. Remus pulled her away.

                "Nothing, I don't think." 

                "Oh, right." She continued to scratch her nose and then pointed to a compartment. "That's it, I'm sure of it." Remus opened the door and hefted her into it. She stumbled into Oliver's arms. 

                "Thanks." He said to Remus, pulling her away and offering him access into the compartment. Remus helped him help her into a chair. She curled up lengthwise and didn't stir. 

                "Your wife…" Remus started shaking his head. 

                "Is the hardest person in the world to keep sober. We had to go home from a restaurant early one night, because she had a single glass of wine." Oliver snorted. 

                "Is that about the same as four butterbeers?" Remus grinned as Ginny began to snore. 

                "You let her have four?" Oliver laughed. "I'm surprised you didn't have to carry her."

                "Oh."

                "I usually try and cut her off at two."

                "Oh!" 

                "The most I've seen her have is twelve and she had to crawl home from the Leaky Cauldron. Her limit it about six on an empty stomach though." He brushed a lock of hair from her face and smiled. "Thanks again." He said, looking up. Remus took the hint. Oliver closed the door behind him as Ginny hit rolled over and hit the floor with a huge _thump_. She sighed contentedly. 

                *                                              *                                              *                                              *

                "Gin. Gin! Wake up." Her eyes slit open and she saw her husband. 

                "I need some of Tom's stuff." He tipped the contents of a paper cup into her mouth, she blinked furiously. "Thanks, honey. Are we there yet?" She jumped onto her bare feet, surprisingly agile. 

                "Yeah, yeah we are." He tossed the paper cup into corner and offered her her shoes, which she waved away. "Alright then, here we go." He handled her shoes much the way Remus had and they started out into the already full corridor. Ginny bumped into Lily. 

                "Jeez, I'm sorry. Every time I leave a door or something I seem to bump into you." Lily assured it was quite alright and looked over her shoulder with interest. "Oh, Lily Evans, this is my husband Oliver Wesley. Oliver, Lily. You might recognize her." She stepped on his foot discreetly as they were moved along the corridor. 

                "Oh, wow." He looked at Ginny with avid eyes. "Is she-?" Ginny nodded. Lily looked confused. 

                "I didn't think we had met before." They shook hands. 

                "You just look like a model we know." Ginny said. Oliver winked at Lily and Ginny shoved him in the chest. "Men and their wandering eyes. Funny how women can't get away with it." She looked pointedly towards Oliver, who blushed. 

                "I know the feeling." Lily admitted, though she didn't seem to mind. "So you're married but-" Ginny prayed at her not to say more and looked pleadingly at the red head. "you two attend Hogwarts?" Lily finished, smiling knowingly at Ginny.  

                "Yeah, we're still figuring out how we'll work everything out. I go to Hogwarts but he doesn't.  I might not come after all though, I don't really need my N.E.W.T.s." She grabbed Oliver's hand as they walked out into the cool night air. He squeezed it. "I don't really need anything." 

                "Me either." He kissed her softly. Lily sighed happily. 

                "You two look… blissful." She whispered. She peeked into one of the carriages. "Only room for two in here. Won't you come with me, Ginny?" Lily pulled her in before she had a chance to answer. It was empty. Ginny looked confused. 

                "Evans, what?" Lily slammed on the front of the carriage. 

                "Go!" It started away. "You're married?" She accused Ginny, sitting down calmly. 

                "Yes. Despite what you think, there's nothing between James and I." 

                "Truly? Because I'll go to your husband…"

                "Why would you meddle? You hardly even know us!" Ginny shouted. 

                "Because…" Lily said loftily. 

                "You better not, Evans. There's nothing. We're just friends. Jealous, are you? Don't really mind when he messes with his hair, do you? Wondering what it looks like when it's been rolled around on a pillow for an hour or two?"

                "I could just ask you!" Both had stood up now, and were yelling furiously. 

                "I couldn't tell you, but you're probably thick enough to ask!" 

                "The hell you couldn't!" Lily roared. The door popped open and stairs unfurled, but they didn't notice, just kept on arguing. "And the only one thick here is you." 

                "Oh, keep talking! I can see right through you! You're just jealous because you want the git, and you think I have him but I don't!" 

                "Oh, leave Potter out of this, the point is you're running around on your husband and don't want me to tell!" Oliver and James exchanged confused and suddenly suspicious looks. 

                "I told you I haven't and it would be none of your business if I did."

                "Go jump in a lake." Lily snapped. 

                "I wish you would." Ginny snapped back. 

                "Leave me alone, cow!" 

                "Oh touché," Ginny said sarcastically. "Try again." 

                "I will." Lily, still furious, was getting flustered. 

                "Strike two." Ginny on the other hand, had calmed down. 

                "Aargh!" 

                "And you're outta there!" Ginny imitated an American accent and pointed to the door, they both did a double-take as they saw the Marauders, Oliver and a whole crowd of other people clustered at the entrance. There was thundering applause. Ginny gestured for Evans to leave. "Age before beauty." 

                "Don't let me stop you." Lily snapped. Ginny got out, her temper flaring again. 

                "Alright Evans. You'll get yours." She got close to her face and pulled away, sweeping down. The five boys trailed after her and the crowd parted for them. 

                "What was that?" Remus wanted to know. "Are you okay?"

                "Nothing, Evans. I hate her, come on."

                *                                              *                                              *                                              *

                Dumbledore promised to meet with them after the feast. They joined the Gryffindor table. They were surrounded by the Marauders, so they didn't need to worry about talking to everyone. 

                "Seriously, what happened?" Oliver asked, pressing for what seemed the hundredth time.  

                "Look Oliver, she accused me of something I didn't do." Ginny said impatiently through a mouth of roasted potatoes. "That's it, end of story."

                "It's true. Good ol' Prongs tried, but she let him know he was barking up the wrong tree." Padfoot elbowed James in the side, who blushed and looked apologetically to Oliver. 

                "Daresay, I slipped your mind." Oliver said through gritted teeth. 

                "Honey…" Ginny warned, setting a hand on his rapidly curling fist. 

                "Let's just go up to Dumbledore's office." He pushed away from the table and started to pull her away.

                "But I'm eating!"

                "Too bad!" He gave her a yank of the wrist. She looked apologetically at the others and filled up her plate as much as she could, grabbing it and scurrying away with Oliver. When they were in Dumbledore's office she ignored his shouting and instead ate her dinner. Her plate cleared itself when she had barely finished and she stood up. "Where are you going? I'm not finished!" 

"Dessert." She snapped. He grabbed her by the arm as she passed him and pulled her back. She fell back and knocked her head, hard, as she felt something twist in her ankle. She let out a small scream and Oliver cried out in horror. 

"Ginny, I…" He seemed at a loss for words. 

"Don't touch me!" She yelled and limped out of the room, still toting her plate. She got back to the Great Hall and took her original place, filling the plate up with desserts. Remus was the only Marauder left.

"Why are you limping?" He asked in an undertone. 

"I forgot you're a prefect, Moony." She said softly, rubbing her thumb against the badge. 

"He didn't-?" Remus looked murderous. 

"You're right, he didn't." She smiled. "I- uh, tripped fell on my face and I think I sprained my ankle." She rubbed the back of her head, wincing. Remus rubbed a hand down the back of her head. She drew a sharp breath. 

"Fell on your face and got a bump the size of London? Don't lie to me. I don't like it." He bared his teeth and Ginny was reminded that he was getting to act like a wolf. 

"Nearing that time of the month? Leave me alone." The color drained from Remus' face.

                "What is that supposed to mean?" He asked fiercely. 

                "You just reminded me of someone PMSing. Especially right now." Ginny held out her hand. "Peace?" He shook it.

                "I'm not PMSing at you. You just ought to tell someone if Oliver is beating you up."

                "But he's not." Ginny insisted. "We were just arguing and I meant to leave and he tried to stop me but we got into a scuffle. He didn't mean it."

                "Look. I lived with an abusive father for about 11 years. They never mean it." 

                "Ugh, what a day! First, I'm accused of running around on my husband and then my husband is accused of beating me." Ginny put her hands over her face and let her elbows rest on the surface of the table. "I'm telling you he didn't do anything of the sort." She said at the disbelieving snort he made. 

                "Alright, alright. Let's go get those fixed up." He helped her up and out of the Great Hall. She checked the staff table. Dumbledore was still seated at it. 

                "Okay." She laughed as he finally levitated her and enjoyed the sensation of flying as he guided her up the stairs and to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey, a young woman who insisted they call her Poppy, greeted them. 

                "What happened?" She asked, pressing on spots at the ankle. 

                "Ginny fell over backwards." Remus said softly. Ginny silently thanked him. He nodded to her. Poppy didn't seem to understand. "You better check out her head." He said and left her. Poppy fixed up her ankle and then looked over her head, she clucked her tongue. 

                "Don't think you did anything too permanent. These things heal best on their own, but I'll give you something for the swelling. It'll be tender. She handed Ginny a steaming cup and Ginny gulped down the contents. It tasted like honey. 

                "Ooh. I like it." She whispered, then gasped as her breasts shriveled and disappeared from her chest. "Oh my god!" 

                "Oh my god!" Poppy screamed and then furiously threw a pinch of  Floo powder into her fire. "SIRIUS BLACK!" They waited a moment and then the spinning figure of Padfoot came into the room. 

                "What's up?" He smiled at Ginny. "How's it going, Poopy?" He winked at the fuming nurse.

                "Very mature… now change her back!" She pointed to Ginny who crossed her arms. 

                "Uh…" Sirius looked Ginny over, and shook his head. "I don't get it."

                "I gave her something for the swelling on her head." Poppy said through pursed lips. 

                "What'd you do to your head?" Sirius asked and then hit himself on the forehead. "Oh jeez." 

                "Well done, now change her back!" Sirius winced at the woman's tone. 

                "How'd you know it was me?" He stalled. 

                "Who else would it be that has a particular gift for potions?"

                "Uh… Snivellus Snape."    

                "Severus Snape would never sink to that level. How do you change her back?"

                "There's no antidote?"

                "WHAT?" Poppy and Ginny both screamed. Ginny threw her arms up in the air and Sirius winced. Ginny quickly crossed her arms again. 

                "How much did you drink, Gin?" He smiled apologetically. 

                "So, I'm stuck like this forever?" She yelled. 

                "No… no. Oh man, I'll ruin this if I tell you." Ginny looked murderous, so he changed his mind. "Eat lima beans. No joke." He said as she looked exasperated. "You eat a pound of lima beans and you get… uh you get better." 

                "That better work." Poppy warned. "I'm getting tired of having to throw out all my potions and having that incompetent potions master of yours work them out. I'll report the next one to Dumbledore, I will." She pursed her lips and sent them away. 

                "So Gin," Sirius swung his arms at his side. "Sorry about that." 

                "Let's go down to the kitchens," She muttered. He followed her, still apologizing profusely. She found Oliver in the kitchens, drunk. 

                "Ginny, I am so sorry." He stumbled over to her blearily. "How's everything?"

                "Most husbands beat their wives when they're drunk and apologize when they're sober." She snapped. She asked the house-elf at hand for a pound of lima beans. 

                "Cooked with what, missus?" The elf asked. 

                "Am I allowed to have it with anything?" Sirius nodded. "With butter and corn. Would you bring out some buns, too?" She told the elf, who bowed and left them. Ginny cursed and sat down to wait. 


	3. Our Year, Our Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry and Company

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. Drop me a line sometime. Or an e-line, rather. (laughs hysterically. Sees no one else is laughing and gets up to walk away.) Enjoy the story everybody.  

Two yelling fits, a game of Frisbee golf and a pound of lima beans later, Ginny had her breasts back. Oliver said he would walk back to the Three Broomsticks and get a room, but Ginny just wanted to sleep on a couch in the Gryffindor Common Room. So Oliver set off alone and Ginny walked back up with Sirius to the common room. They were talking about the aforementioned husband. "I just can't understand why you would stay with someone who yelled and you and pushed you around and-"

"Now, see, that's not fair. Tonight was the first time anything like that happened and I've never seen him so drunk or sorry. Anyway, I'm starting to think it's part of men's genetic make-up to have a jealous streak. I had this boyfriend, Harry and he was like that. Only he didn't really yell. But he would get all sulky and wouldn't talk to me and stuff. " 

"Where do you find these guys? And that's what you get for dating a guy named Harry. Harry is the single worst name I think I've ever heard. If you don't agree with me, Harry is short for Harold, enough said." Sirius nodded, satisfied he had completely won her over. 

"Not always. Anyway, I'm sure you have a jealous streak and I know for a fact that you sulk. I've seen you. You even start shedding." She slapped a hand to her mouth. Sirius peered at her curiously. 

"What do you mean? I don't think you've ever seen me angry or-." 

                "Nothing, nothing." She brushed it off.

                "And what do you mean, I start shedding? What do you know, anyway, Wesley?" She bit her lip, he looked angry. She didn't want him to be mad at her. When she didn't answer, he pressed on. "You've always known something. I know that. It's just, I just never precisely knew what." He was squinting at her, something he always did when he was angry with her in the future. She wondered if he knew who she was and that he had met her, however briefly, when he was in school. He probably didn't. He had never shown any recognition towards her, save one or two unexplainable moments. Azkaban had probably caused him to forget anyone not firmly rooted into his heart. Seeing the handsome young face in front of her and knowing his future, made her heart cry out. 

                "Oh, Sirius!" She jumped into his arms and hugged him fiercely. He, confused and somewhat awkward, returned it. He didn't look angry any longer, so she rushed into an explanation. "I know some things about the Marauders that you probably don't want people to know, but I swear I won't use them against you guys. I want you to remember me fondly."

                "I'm fond of you." He insisted, a casual sideways grin pulling across his face. "What sort of things do you know?"

                "Remus is a werewolf and you other three have just become Animagi, this summer. You're a big dog, Peter's a rat, and James is a stag." His face dropped. This clearly isn't what he was expecting. 

                "How did you…?"

                "Please don't hate me. I don't know why I even told you. I am so stupid!" Sirius pulled her into a classroom and grabbed onto her shoulders. 

                "Hey, don't worry about it. We'll talk this out with the other guys and we'll see if we can work all this out." He still looked a little worried. Ginny winced. 

                "Please don't modify my memory. I don't think I can handle alcohol right now." She finally, after all the strain of the night, broke into tears. Sirius groaned. 

                "I wish Moony were here. He's so much better than me at comforting crying people.  So, you aren't… you aren't going to tell?" Ginny shook her head. "You don't hate Remus?" Ginny shook her head. "Oh." Was the quiet reply. Ginny wiped her eyes and shook her head once more, this time to clear it. 

                "The secret is safe with me." She whispered, determined. She would not further emotionally humiliate herself in front of one of the only friends she had in the past. She set square her shoulders and practically marched out of the classroom. Sirius shook his head. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "Time is a delicate matter. You say you don't need to be choosy, that anyway to the future is fine. But what you truly need is a death spinner. An instrument able to conduct time and place." Dumbledore leaned forward on his elbows and sighed. "An instrument that is almost impossible to get a hold of. Because, it is called what it is, for the many murders that they have helped to commit. I trust your intentions, for reasons of my own. However, the Ministry will not. You yourselves will not have any correspondence with anyone official involved in this matter, But I will have a time convincing them, respected though I am. It could take months." He leaned back in his chair and watched their reactions, as if studying them for a science project. 

                "Months! But sir…" Oliver put his head in his hands. 

                "Honey. It wouldn't matter anyway. We'll get there the same time no matter how much time we spend here. It _is_ more time for us." She turned to Dumbledore. "You can take all the time you like. Our priority is getting to the future, not getting away from the past." Dumbledore smiled. 

                "Very well. That leaves the matter of living and schooling arrangements." 

                "I'm already out of Hogwarts." Oliver seemed to be bragging. Neither Ginny or Albus were impressed. 

                "Please sir, I'd like to continue my Hogwarts education this year, if at all possible. I'm in 7th year." Ginny said. 

                "Very well, present me with your O.W.L.s and we can sort you." He held out his hand expectantly, looking gravely serious, albeit a twinkle in his eye.

                "Sir, I don't have any of those scores. I don't carry things like that around with me." She cried. "I can take them over again, though and then you can decide where to place me."

                "The committee can only come once a year and that is at the end of the year. You could work here until then, but you really wouldn't continue your education and you might even be gone by that time." Dumbledore weighed her options as easily as if he were fussing over milk brands in the supermarket.  "We could put you in fifth year, you would pass with flying colors, I'm sure." Ginny bit her lip. 

                "I could do that." She said slowly. "How… how would we live?" Dumbledore looked between the two of them. It seemed this was the question that had been weighing on their minds the most. 

                "I'm afraid I don't understand." He leant forward again, Ginny also. Oliver remained impassive in his chair. Ginny swallowed. She knew he knew, just as well as he did, but he seemed to be testing her. The only problem was, she wasn't sure what she was being tested for. 

                "Professor Dumbledore. Oliver and I have been married for just about a month."

                "What of it?"

                "A married couple should remain together to… remain together. I may have to reconsider my admission to Hogwarts if we're not allowed together." She gulped, praying that she hadn't just deprived herself a month or so of school that she desperately wanted. "I realize I have not proved myself an asset to the wizarding world, however if I am given a chance I guarantee I will not disappoint." Dumbledore nodded and looked genuinely pleased. 

                "A flat in Hogsmeade should do just fine. Here's today's issue of  The Daily Prophet. I give you a week to get settled in and then I'll expect that you begin classes and be sorted." Ginny took the paper and understood that the meeting was over when he smiled expectantly. She let Oliver go out first, "Oh Ms. Wesley?" She turned around and let Oliver go down before her. "Shut the door." She did.

                "You are wise." She blushed. "Not only because of your knowledge of the future but your manner of handling it. You are not eager to go to return to the future."

                "There are things that the past hold that the future could not contain." Ginny said simply. 

                "I wonder why then, you wear that ring upon your finger. You seem to find your future with your young man doomed." Ginny had the impression, as she often did around Dumbledore, that she was being x-rayed. She would not look away from his eyes. She could be bolder in the past. 

                "When before I entered this place, I was a girl. I am a woman. A married woman. I have labored next to a good hardworking man who loves me back. I've never suffered with a man before. Oliver and I are indeed doomed in the future, but this past is eternal." She fought back tears, knowing every word she spoke was true. "The boy… back in the future. I'll come out of the kitchen with lines on my face that he doesn't know, memories he'll never share. He won't be able to trace them with his fingers and remember why I got them and how I've lived. I don't want him to know. Oliver and I have both agreed and it's best we don't discuss the experiences in the past. It would dredge up a lot of feelings that are unnecessary. We both have lives and loves in the future. Two separate worlds. You ask me why I wear this ring?" She smiled proudly. "This is my first love and marriage. And only two people will know. This is my work and suffering, my love and my sharing. My coming- of- age. I am a woman and this ring is me. This whole thing, is my rite of passage. But I'm not ready to grow up completely. A part of me was hoping that you wouldn't believe me or that we would be stuck here or something. That was silly. I can't stop growing up anymore than the next person. But I am glad that there's a delay. Who was it that said you can't go home?" She finished her speech and looked to Dumbledore for whatever emotion he might convey. 

                "You are indeed wise." She left the door open when she left. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "Turn the game up!" Oliver yelled from the living room. 

                "If you want to hear it, come help me cook!" She ordered, turning up the wireless even so. Oliver appeared behind her and kissed her neck lightly. She handed him the knife she had been chopping vegetables with. 

                "Why don't you just do it with magic?" He whined. She didn't answer him, just pointed to the chopping board and several whole vegetables. "Alright." He resigned himself to following his wife's orders. She grabbed a chunk of carrot and set to chewing it thoroughly. 

                "I'm going to go finish up my potions essay for Grunt. It's the last thing I have to do this weekend." She said in his ear. He turned around to kiss her. 

                "I'm so proud of you. I never had everything finished when I was taking my O.W.L. exams." Suddenly, he shoved the knife down to the hilt down into her stomach. She pulled away and gasped in surprise and pain. She pulled at the handle and whimpered. A score had just been made by the Appleby Arrows, everyone was screaming, mocking her own agony…

                Ginny sat up with a shock from the couch. There was indeed a screaming crowd coming from the kitchen, she could see Oliver cooking. The knife lay practically unused and he waved his wand around. Something smelled wonderful. She stretched stiffly. "Hey, Sleepyhead!" Oliver yelled from the kitchen. "You barely finished that essay before you conked out. Come have some lunch! Puddlemere United just won. You know, we could make a fortune betting on the Quidditch games." 

                "I know it. What's for lunch? Whatever it is smells great." She accepted a plate of steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes, and a lima bean and corn burger. She laughed. "You're just hoping my boobs will grow again." She accused him. 

                "Then why do I eat it?" He said, not unkindly. She shrugged. 

                "You tell me." 

                "Excellent!" Remus came in and threw his cloak at a hook, it crumpled to the floor. Peter, James and Sirius recreated the act three times more. Ginny laughed, Oliver frowned. Some things never change. "Food!" Remus sat on the couch next to Ginny. 

                "I'm bloody hungry." Peter batted his eyelashes at Oliver who got up to make them up plates. "So G n T, you forgot it was a Hogsmeade weekend?"

                "Yeah, how come you didn't come down?" Remus sounded offended. 

                "I wanted to finish up my homework. And plus, you guys always show up at my place anyway. Regardless of whether it's a Hogsmeade weekend or not. Which I don't think it is." She said sternly, though she was smiling. 

                "Not a Hogsmeade weekend? But… I must've gotten my calendar all a trot!" James cried. 

                "Oh no. What if we… GET IN TROUBLE?" Sirius wailed. Four identical enormous handkerchiefs covered four identical evil grins as four identical bawling sounds filled the air. 

                "If you're caught down here at my place when you aren't supposed to be, you could get me in trouble." Ginny admonished. The handkerchiefs made a reappearance. She laughed. 

                "Alright, you four. Leave my wife alone." Oliver walked back out with four plates floating in front of him. The four grabbed them and eagerly started at the contents.

                "Yes, sir." James said through a mouth of food.  "G n T, you want to go down to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer? We need to talk to you about the latest endeavor." 

                "Alright, how about I go to the pub and you guys raid the fridge? I don't want any part in what pranks you guys do." Oliver grabbed his cloak and kissed Ginny, disappearing out the door. Remus got up and locked it, cracking his knuckles. 

                "A session of the Marauders has come into order." He said loudly. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He waited for the others to repeat it and cleared his throat loudly. "My companion and ally Padfoot will address the group about the upcoming prank and it's progress." He sat down and Sirius got up. 

                "We've recently decided on a spanking good prank to conclude the first month of school. We've had three such during this month. The 1st being the invention of my dear friend, Wormtail. We put cockroach cluster in the Slytherin food down in the kitchens. Number two is of the invention of Moony, in which we gave everyone in the school a tail."

                "Those were fun." Ginny commented. The Marauders laughed. Those had been fun. Ginny's had been wagging all day. She had been one of the first to get the antidote, after the teachers, but some of the students had had theirs for four days. 

                "Last, but not least was Prongs, in which we gave Snape bright pink sausage curls for… a week." 

                "Thank you, we know what we did… could you get going?" James said impatiently. 

                "I am following the rules that you helped make up, Mr. Stinkypants." Sirius admonished. "Now, the next prank is thought up by… me." He struck a pose. "Okay. We're going to change the genders of the Slytherins for a day or two. I like to call this Gender Bender Brew. Now, as the potions master, I will make this glorious brew and I will make it potent. Wormtail, he who sticks his neck out, stole all the ingredients we couldn't get on our own. Moony, master of saving asses, will do the actual administering to the food because we've already learned that the house elves don't mind if he messes with the food. And Prongs… Prongs will sit there and play with his hair." James booed. "Prongs, the master of innocence, will do the explaining. Like, as our newly appointed research master has found out, there is no antidote to this potion." Sirius cleared his throat. "That's the news. This will go down, tomorrow. So everyone sleep tight tonight, because tomorrow is a big day. Back to Moony." Remus and Sirius switched places again.

                "Thank you, Padfoot. I hate being the master of saving asses. We'll have fun tomorrow. Okay, so, since G n T has recently been voted into this order, she has been exempted from this month's invention. However, next month, research master extraordinaire, you will have to come up with a prank of your own."

                "And this whole time I thought you were using me for my research skills and flat." Ginny exclaimed, laughing at the offended looks she received. 

                "You thought wrong." Remus said dryly. She smiled up at her friend. 

                After the meeting, Remus stuck around to help with the dishes. She walked him back up to the school and had dinner in the Great Hall. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny barely made it in time for the beginning of breakfast. "Where were you?" Remus asked. 

                "I slept through my alarm." She groaned, slipping next to him in the seat. "Oliver and I had a row last night and that kept me up late."

                "What about?" He scowled. Ginny punched him on the arm, she loved when he got overprotective. 

                "He doesn't want me to get in trouble for all these pranks. He thinks that it's the only thing that the group does and he thinks it's stupid. I, of course, wouldn't tell him that there is a whole other thing that the group is for. I don't participate in that, mind you."

                "For obvious reasons." Remus clacked his teeth. "Wouldn't want you to get bitten." 

                "It'd be quicker than figuring out how to be an animagi." Ginny sighed. "I keep telling Oliver about these Potions assignments. Lucky he doesn't go here or he'd know Grunt doesn't believe in homework." Ginny went for the food. 

                "Thank god for that. I'm swamped as it is from the teachers who believe in homework like a religion." Peter sighed. "I'd still be trying to become a rat if it was like this every year." 

                "So, what's happening over there?" She nodded to the Slytherin table. 

                "Well, it should last around three or four days with the potency I made it. It'll take about half an hour to work once it's ingested." Sirius cracked his knuckles, coming into his element.

                "How long will it take until it's traced back to us?" James asked, pulling out a pad of paper. This was betting time. "I'm going for ten minutes."

                "Five." Peter moaned. 

                "Seven." Sirius usually won. 

                "Never." Everyone groaned at Moony. Ginny blushed when they looked expectantly at her, she had never been included in this ritual before, even though she had been sworn in for the previous two pranks. She loved being in the Marauders. 

                "14 minutes." Sirius shook his head.

                "You'll learn with time, woman." She swatted his arm. "Why did you make a guess like fourteen anyway?" He kept glancing at the Slytherin table. 

                "If it takes twelve minutes then Prongs and I can argue over the time. If it takes higher than that, I've got awhile before Moony wins the bet." She laughed at their looks. 

                "That makes sense." Wormtail said in disbelief. Ginny laughed again. 

                "How much longer?" Remus asked Sirius who glanced over at the Slytherin table again. 

                "Supposing they got here on time, from five to 15 minutes. If they were ten minutes late, which is usually the norm, 15 to 25 minutes. We wait for the first scream and act interested but detached." Sirius leaned back and looked casual. A few girls looked around and bit their lips hopefully. Sirius noticed but pretended he didn't. Ginny knew for a fact one of those 6th  years had been in with the Gryffindor 5th year boys and had gotten angry when she had figured out that Sirius felt he didn't own any allegiance to a girl he slept with. Ginny had been surprised at the fact that all the Marauders, including Peter and Remus, had been with at least one girl by this time. She had even been Harry's first, when he was 17, and Hermione thought that was scandalous, albeit she had been sleeping with Ron for two years. The first in secret. 

Peter had dated a girl named Gabriella, pretty, plump, and exceptionally short, for a month. It only lasted that long but not before she had given him a few experiences he could go on for years about. Remus had been with a girl named Natalie for all of fourth year. They had had a rendezvous during the summer. She had dumped him when he told her his secret. He performed a memory charm on her. Anne, Roberta, and Roxanne were on Sirius' roster. James had had Kelly, Gigi, and Beth though he continued to pine after Lily.  She refused to remember that, at 17, she had been with four men and cursed them as a bunch of himbos. There was a shout from the Slytherin table. Ginny looked up quickly. 

Victim #1: Yule Timbers, who was turning into a not bad looking female before their eyes. His hair lengthened, his robe stretched out in front and by the horrified look on… her? his? face things were going on below deck. Now completely a she, Yule grabbed onto long chunks of black curls and let out a shrill shriek, running from the hall. "Shiver me timbers!" Peter yelled out, Ginny groaned. 

                "That was awful." She whispered to him. The second victim was also male and gave Ginny great satisfaction, though not for long. Lucius Malfoy did not yell or give a frightened response. Though it was ultimately entertaining. He smoothed his long straight hair back and then gave patted himself in shock, ultimately finding his breasts. There was only a tiny change in expression and then a very attractive curvaceous Lucius left the Great Hall. 

                "He's gone off to tinker with himself… or herself." Sirius said in disbelief. "He'll dig into the… female psyche. He's going to be better in bed than we are."

                "Figures he'd make a better looking female than I do." Ginny sighed. 

                "Figures the best looking guy and or girl in the whole school is a total asshole." Sirius sighed. "If he was a year younger, I'd kick his ass."  He said fiercely. The comment drew laughter from the others.

                "What, Padfoot, won't fight your elders? You wouldn't fight him if he was a fifth year, maybe if he was a first year." James joked. Sirius blushed. Remus had started the timer. 

                "Three minutes." He announced. Everyone got their galleon out. Ginny was glad she had brought one. Teachers were starting to gather around the table and people whose gender had been bent were leaving, a few buff guys crying and women flexing their muscles and glaring around at the table. "Five." Severus Snape left the table looking surprisingly attractive, blushing. Professor McGonagall broke off from the group of teachers and rushed to the spot where they were sitting. 

                "Do you know anything about this?" She whispered. All the other students looked around. 

                "Seven minutes and 15 seconds. How do you do that?" Remus said, they ignored McGonagall. Ginny handed over her galleon with the rest. 

                "I know people." Sirius said proudly. "Come on, hand 'em over." Everyone groaned. 

                "Hello!" McGonagall yelled. "You're all to report to the Headmasters office. Quick." They all got up from the table and started towards the office, where they had all been and knew the password and location very well. They saw Lucius Malfoy, looking flustered, emerge from the laundry room. 

                "Couldn't even wait until you got to your own common room?" Sirius shouted. 

                "Ooh, Lucy." Ginny teased. "Finally, you can realize what a lead handed blockhead you are." 

                "You're just jealous because you've never seen a finer female specimen." He blew a kiss to the Marauders and they continued on to the headmasters office. They met Severus standing by the door. 

                "Need help in?" Remus said, not unkindly. Severus looked surprised, scowling at them. 

                "Yeah, in your new state we wouldn't mind having a little party with you. There's just one thing missing." Sirius pretended to think hard. "What is it, Prongs?"

                "I don't know, Padfoot…" He scratched his head. "What do you think, Moony?" Moony crossed his arms and didn't say anything. "Wormtail?" Peter, enraptured, didn't answer. 

                "I've got it!" Sirius slapped his forehead. "Shampoo!" They laughed and slapped hands, and the Marauders went in to Dumbledore's office. Snape hadn't gone for his wand, he watched almost impassively as they went up the stairs. The gargoyle jumped in front of doorway. Ginny stayed behind with Severus. She had never precisely hated him, as other Gryffindors had. He had never given her any reason to, unless you counted Harry, but where would sympathy hate get her? Severus brushed a strand of oily hair behind her/his ear and looked at Ginny untrustingly. 

                "You really do look good as a girl."

                "Thanks…" It was the first time he/she had spoken. Her voice had become high-pitched and soft. She was still looking over Ginny as though Ginny were going to attack. 

                "I'll see you around." She said and let herself upstairs wondering why in the world she was being nice to her friends worst enemy. She ignored her question and sank into one of the armchairs, ignoring the stream of questions from her friends inquiring whether she was doing the thing she had just accused herself of. Dumbledore came in five minutes later. He sat in an armchair companionably. 

                "Who made it?" He asked. 

                "I did, sir." Sirius answered proudly. "Quite good, isn't it?"

                "Yes, yes it is. I presume you didn't add a little water even to affect the flavor."

                "They've got a good three days to wait, sir." James said happily. "As you probably know, there's no antidote." 

                "No lima beans?" Dumbledore said in a stately manner.   

"You heard about that?" Ginny blushed. Somehow, she didn't want Dumbledore to know about her adventures with Sirius' potions.

"Indeed. Well, boys."

"And Ginny." She added. 

"And Ginny," He agreed, "You've done a fine job. And, as the punishment should fit the crime, you have to take dosage of the potion. I assume you still have some?" Remus produced a bottle and gulped. 

                "You're not going to take any points, Professor?" He asked uncertainly. 

                "Certainly not. It wouldn't do any good. And I know the taste of this particular potion." He looked around, daring them to ask. "And so I'll let you take it with your next meal. However, you are not allowed to water it down. Enjoy your trip to the other side. Enjoy your last classes beforehand. Off you scoot." Ginny sighed and resigned to her fate, left with the other Marauders.

                "Well, that wasn't bad." Peter said cheerily. 

                "Not bad? We've been hit with our prank!" James cried. 

                "Cursed a mirror!" Sirius whined. 

                "I'll be sleeping in the common room." Ginny mused. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny pulled a face, this potion wasn't very good. Remus must have only sprinkled a little for the Slytherins not to notice. Then again, they weren't exactly the smartest of folk. She had put some on all her food and she was regretting it as she began her lunch. Evans took the only seat left, next to her. She looked around and heaved a sigh. "There's no crisps left." 

                "You can have some of mine, Evans." Ginny offered, smiling peaceably. The Marauders watched, horrified. 

                "What are you trying to pull?" Evans looked at her suspiciously. 

                "Nothing, I just don't want all of them. Watching my figure."

                "Hmmm…" She frowned a moment longer. "Well, thanks!" She grabbed most of them and went at them ferociously. "What's that taste?"

                "…Vinegar." 

                "Oh… jeez." Evans considered and smiled. "I'd have dropped dead before I thought you'd have done something nice to me." She finished up the crisps quick.  

                "Well, that's reason enough for me." Ginny quickly finished her shepherd's pie and left before Evans figured it out.     

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "Oliver, I'm going to spend tonight at Hogwarts again." 

                "You aren't going to become a male again, are you?" He looked up suspiciously. She rolled her eyes at him and cleared up the dishes. 

                "No, I'm just going out for a drink with the guys and I thought I would spend the night up at the school afterwards." 

                "Why do they call you G n T?" He was still surveying her distrustfully. 

                "Ginny and Tonic. I've told you that."

                "Do any of them besides Remus know the effect of you know what on you know who?" 

                "Nope. Don't worry about it." She kissed him on the forehead and then on the lips. He pushed her slowly away from the table and onto the couch. "I really need to go." She mumbled and pushed past him, panting. "I love you, honey. We'll make love tomorrow morning. Saturday."

                "I'll put it on my calendar," He said dryly. She kissed him again and left. She was actually going straight up to the castle, but Oliver generally needed a reason. Or she could stop by the Three Broomsticks… wouldn't hurt. 

                Half an hour later she stumbled up to the castle and tip toed to the common room. Moony was up and studying. He didn't look up as she came through the portrait hole. "Hey, Gin." 

                "How did you know it was me?" 

                "Had a little run-in with a suit of armor, did we?" He said softly, "I recognized the screams of terror." 

                "I didn't scream in terror." She said indignantly. 

                "The armor is starting to recognize you when you're drunk." 

                "Not funny." She flopped into his lap, knocking his quill away from the paper. He made an impatient noise. "Come on, Moony, don't you want to talk to your best friend?" 

                "Sure, I do." He smiled warmly up at her. "You realize there are three other chairs at this table." 

                "I like sitting with you." She slurred. 

                "How many did you have?" 

                "I had five, but I haven't eaten all day." 

                "Made a stop in the bushes on the way here?" He asked bemusedly. 

                "Shut up. You know me too well." He rubbed her back as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into his shoulder. "I'm hungry."

                "I can imagine." He replied calmly, continuing to write around her. She leaned back and restricted his writing again, looking into his eyes. He remained calm, watching her back. 

                "Do you still think about Natalie?" He tensed beneath her and around her. 

                "No, I don't." She was surprised to see he was being honest. "It wasn't meant to be. I'm starting to think nothing was meant to be in that particular regard." He brushed his hair back from his forehead and leaned back, relaxing again. 

                "If Peter sleeps with another girl, I'll give you some." She said earnestly. 

                "You're sweet. I think I may have to decline, though." He smiled at her and she smiled back. 

                "I'm hungry." She whispered. 

                "Okay, okay." He rubbed a few strands of hair away from her face. "We'll go ask James for his cloak." She got off of him and he followed her upstairs. 

                "Did they bring anyone in the dorm?" She asked before she went in to the dorm, Remus shook his head and pushed the door open. Ginny opened James' hangings and shook him gently. "Prongs… Prongs." He shot up and knocked into her, she fell to the ground and hit her head on Padfoot's bedpost. 

                "Sorry, sorry." He jumped out of bed in only his boxers and pulled her up. She flopped onto the bed and he sat down. "What do you need, Ginny?"

                "I want your…" She ran a hand up his thigh, wiggling her eyebrows. "Invisibility cloak." He brushed her hand away and blushed. 

                "Alright. You're awfully bold tonight." 

                "She's drunk." Remus said from across the room, he was apparently getting ready for bed. Ginny kicked her heels onto the ground and climbed under James' covers. They smelled deliciously of him. 

                "What were you drinking?" He asked, digging around in his trunk. She stuck her head under the covers. "What was she drinking, Moony?" Remus looked up, also in his boxers. 

                "Can I tell him, fair Virginia?" 

                "The jig is up." She disappeared back under the covers.

                "Little G n T is appropriately named. It takes about a gin and tonic to get her completely pissed. How many did you have tonight again, Gin?"

                "Five butterbeers." Was the muffled response. 

                "_Five?" James grinned crookedly, looking at the lump in his bed. "It only took five?" _

                "I don't think I could get drunk off of butterbeer, myself." Moony said. "But it's very possible for her. She can get tipsy after two if she hasn't eaten, which she hasn't all day." Ginny groaned. James lifted up the covers and handed the cloak to her. 

                "You want to come Moony?" She tried to put it on, backwards and then sideways. 

                "This is one sleepy werewolf, no can do." He watched her, extremely amused, as she tangled with the cloak. "Oh for Merlin's sake, help her James." He walked over to her and pulled the cloak away. 

                "How do you get a cloak tangled up like this?" He fumbled with it. 

                "WHASSAT?" Sirius stumbled out wearing… a frown. 

                "Damn it, Sirius!" James yelled. "We told you to wear clothes to bed." 

                "Don't like it James, don't like it at all." He noticed a wide-eyed Ginny and bowed. "Kisses." 

                "Go back to bed, Sirius." She said, remembering herself and turning around. 

                "I like that idea just fine." He pulled on pajama pants and allowed her to turn back.  "So, what's going on, folks?" He yawned, disappearing back into the bed hangings. 

                "Ginny's drunk and hungry after five butterbeers." Remus said from across the room. Sirius sat back up and grinned evilly. 

                "I can oblige you." He said suggestively.

                "I said hungry."

                "Oh." Ginny had, at this point, climbed in with Remus and was telling him something that none of them were listening to. 

                "… and, and I must've disappeared under that cloak a hundred times. When Harry and I would sneak off together." She finished yawning. "The end. How're you managing, James?"

                "Huh, oh fine. You can come climb under it now."  

                "You want to come?" She asked, stumbling to him and waiting to have it put on. 

                "You asked Moony first?"     He set about putting it on her. 

                "Yep."

                "Okay, I'll go." She took it off again and jumped onto his back for a piggy back. James pulled it on over them. "See you guys later." Ginny started to drift off as they went down the stairs and all the way down to the kitchens. Things were brought sharply back in focus as she was plopped onto solid matter and expected to stand without assistance. 

                "Prongs." 

                "Hmmm." He had disappeared into a large storeroom. 

                "I'm drunk."

                "I've realized." 

                "You could take advantage of me." She whispered. He reappeared. 

                "Are you accusing me or offering?"

                "Dunno." 

                "Is it really taking advantage if you suggest it?" 

                "I'm drunk."

                "Déjà vu." Ginny flopped ungracefully to the floor. "What do you want?" 

                "I want… baked beans." She said, rolling underneath the island in the middle. "And I want… to make you hot chocolate." She rolled back out, getting heavily to her feet and disappearing inside the storeroom for the necessary supplies. James grabbed canned baked beans and went to heat them up. "Can you cook actual meals?" She asked, pulling out a pan of her own. 

                "No. You know that." He gave them a quick stir and then jumped onto the counter beside her. "You know how I know that?" He didn't wait for an answer. "For all the times you've made fun of me because of it." She blushed.  "And I wouldn't take advantage of you. Remember, you're married."

                "Sometimes I like to forget."

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny blew her nose and let out a cry of anguish. "I hate being sick." She moaned. 

                "I know, I know. Don't you think its funny, though?"

                "Doe!" She cried. 

                "I mean how we can do practically anything in the wizarding world, but they can't find a cure for the common cold." Oliver shook his head and served her up a bowl of soup.

                "Thanks. You're supposedly going to get about one hundred colds in your lifetibe. Then you build a resistantance to… the commbon cold."

                "How many have you got to go?" Oliver asked, finally giving up and feeding her. 

                "sebenty eight." She said after chewing her noodles. "I get one or two a year." She moaned again. "And so close to Christmas holiday." 

                "You'll be feeling better. And you're friends are even going to be staying with us."

                "You're excited. I can tell." She said sarcastically. 

                "You read me so well." He matched her sarcasm and helped her finish off the bowl. "I love you, bug."

                "Love you." She leaned back and prepared to further sleep off this cold. 

                "I talked to Dumbledore." Oliver fumbled with the bowl and didn't look at her. 

                "And?" She whispered, dreading and hoping for the same answer.

                "He thinks that it might take the rest of the year, to get the death spinner."                

                "The rest of the school year?" Oliver nodded. "That's good at least."      

                "Ginny." He sat quickly back down on the bed, looking at her fiercely. "I don't want to go back. I want to stay here with you and work in the Pea Coat and then maybe try out for the Quidditch league. Why do we have to go back to the future? Why? Tell me, please. Because I've been searching for a reason and I can't find one."

                "We can't stay here." Oliver's face worked. "The future is our home, our time."

                "This is my home. Our home. And this is our time, because in the future, there is no us. Can you honestly say that you can leave the kitchen and act like none of this happened? That we're not married?" He kissed her on the forehead. "I've made friends that I wouldn't ever want to leave and I have friends in the future I feel the same way about. I didn't know how to figure out where and when I really wanted to be. And then I thought of you and I knew that I wanted to stay here. You know that I've been seeing Odessa Sprout in the future?" Ginny nodded. "Well, that day I came to your house, I had been shopping for an engagement ring, for Odessa. I was going to propose that night at dinner." Ginny nodded. "But I don't know how I'm going to go back to her when you're always in the back of my mind. I won't be able to stand seeing you with Potter."

                "I don't know how to either, Oliver. But we've got to. We already agreed…"

                "I know, I know…" He shook his head and ran a hand through his adorable curly little afro. 

                "You'll invite me to your wedding, won't you?" She pulled him to her and held him like a child. 

                "You know I will."

                "If you don't want to be tormented by this… we could have Dumbledore erase our memories…" Ginny said, bracing herself for his reaction. 

                "No way! I want to remember every moment of this. Every moment." He looked up at her with his beautiful, severe, fierce eyes. She loved him more than anything at that moment. 

                "We'll go on, Oliver. I promise you. Even though we're apart, people will remember us together."

                "Yeah. I can't wait to go visit Tom in the future. We're spending New Years with him, right?" Ginny nodded, bumping her chin against the top of his head. "I'll bet you're dying to see your best friend. Remus Lupin will be excited to see you as well. For you to finally understand."

                "It will be nice to talk to him about the past. Do you think he's made the connection? I mean, in the future, do you suppose he ever got right down to it and said, 'Ginny Wesley is a Weasley and a damn brilliant one at that?'" 

                "I suppose he has. Or will, rather." Oliver gulped. 

                "See honey, we can take part of the past with us to the future. Everything will be okay." They kissed again and he finally left her to sleep. But Ginny couldn't find slumber with Oliver's words beating around in her mind. 

                She too, wanted nothing more then to stay in the past. But she knew that they didn't belong here. They couldn't belong here. She sighed as she realized she had never felt as though she belonged more in her life. She wasn't born here, didn't technically exist here. She did however, have friends that had become a part of her very being. She was a member of the Marauders, researching desperately for pranks and becoming an animagi like her friends. And she was working fast, they were pleased to say. She would probably be able to become an animal by 7th year, they predicted. And Sirius had said so, and Sirius was brilliant at that sort of thing. They were still working on what sort of animal she would become. Peter said an elephant, James wanted a tiger, Sirius a duck and Remus wanted her to decide. She wanted to be an animagi, simple as that. Not helpful, they warned her. 

                Could she pass up that chance, simply to return to the future? She felt guilty knowing she hadn't been missing her family for the past few months. They seemed a distant memory. She couldn't recall faces and memories as she once could. The longing in her heart had been replaced by needing the Marauders, knowing that she would inevitably have to part from them. She missed them already. 

                They would probably fade, like her family had, and she would be reunited with her parents and brothers and her memory would be refreshed. And slowly, but surely, she would forget about the Marauders. About how they were constantly begging Peter to quit smoking, her included, and how he was impressed and awed by everything someone did. Performing for Peter was like a guaranteed, two thumbs up, and he was a flattering personality. She had tried to hate him, but found that she couldn't. About Remus, her best friend, and how he would hold her when she was upset and give her advice and let her know that she was out of line. How he wouldn't let her go out with them, even though she promised to stay in a tree and she wouldn't get bitten. James suave and conceited, having to stop him when he was ruffling his hair too often or seeking out Snape when he was angry. Calming him down after she had done something particularly nasty to Evans. Sirius, good looking and knowing it. Making her laugh so hard that she couldn't breath and taking her breath away when he was switching on the old charm. But always, they were her friends, like none she had ever had. They made her laugh, cry and yell. They forgave her and listened to her ideas. They forgot she was female and remembered at the uncanniest of times. They tried on her high heels and made sure she stuck to the Fizzy Pumpkin drinks. They were there for her when she needed them and understood when she didn't. She couldn't ask for more. 

                She had known her family all her life and she had known them only a matter of months. She had only thought up two pranks, but they had been received enthusiastically. She had never been completely accepted by her family. She was accepted by the Marauders, they loved every flaw and extra pound. Every annoying habit. After all, it was more teasing material. 

                Ginny rolled over and slept. There were still five months left in the school year. She could worry more when the time came. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Remus kissed her soundly on the cheek and shoved a few packages in her hands. "Cheers." Sirius followed and tried to hand her more presents, but she handed them and Remus' back.

                "Just put them under the tree." She let Peter inside, and James who whirled her around in an enthused hug. Oliver looked as though he wasn't sure whether to be pleased or to haul off and punch somebody. She closed the door and moved back to clutch his arm, reassuring him. 

                "So where do we sleep?" The tree looked a lot fuller. Sirius looked around, expectantly.

                "The floor. You can trade off on the couch though." She smiled as they groaned. 

                "Ginny, we come to liven up your Christmas, and this is our thanks? I'm going home." James started towards the door. Ginny put a hand on his chest, he continued trying to walk, acting confused. She laughed happily, she was glad her friends were here for the holiday.

                "You'll be pleased. I asked Dumbledore to set up some of his purple sleeping bags…" There was a collective, 'ooh', around the room.

                "The squashy ones," Peter drooled, Ginny nodded. 

                "The ones with the temperature adjusters?" Sirius wanted to know. Nod.

                "And built in pillows and mattress." Nod.

                "Okay, you talked me into it." James flopped onto the couch. Even Oliver laughed.     

                They the next week, leading up to Christmas, quickly. They thoroughly explored Hogsmeade and thoroughly wreaked havoc. They went up to Hogwarts for some meals, Oliver got his free from the Pea Coat, and since they didn't want to prepare food… 

                Late at night was the most fun. Everyone had a ride on James on the border of the forbidden forest. Ginny held onto his antlers and shrieked with delight. They had a midnight dip with the squid and, after stealing a large quantity of gillyweed from Grunt, went and made friends with the merman. They found they didn't need to steal (a first) that after the first two days the merman gave it to them for their next visit. Ginny went picking with a few of the mermaids and got all sorts of neat stuff in the depths of the lake, including a knife, which they discovered opened all locked doors and could untie any knot. Ginny let Sirius have it, knowing that he would give it to Harry later on and it would prove useful to him. Christmas came and went happily, with the boys sitting around in their sleeping bags, tossing presents around. Ginny received a sweater hand knitted from Oliver with a legend that read '1974.' The guys didn't get the significance of the date or of the fluffy pink jumper. 

                "It clashes something awful with your hair." Sirius complained. Ginny shut him up by tossing him his present from her. She also got a matching hat from Peter. She posed for a few pictures of her posing with Diabla with them both wearing their hats. Remus got her a tiny pendant, just the size of her thumbnail, it was a hawk framed against a moon. 

                "Put it on later. When we go out for dinner tomorrow night." She tucked it in her pocket. Her and Remus were leaving the others for a quiet evening together. James and Sirius had split the cost of her gift, but she didn't mind, she had been wanting one for a long time. It was a desire cloak, rare and expensive. When you put it on, you could do things like fly without a broom, apparate without apparating. They weren't made in the future, because of the danger of Voldemort, but wasn't looking to apparate anywhere she wasn't supposed to, at least not to murder anyone. It also had heating charms and an attractive embroidery. She put it on along with her sweater and hat. 

                "I'm offended. No books?" As if on cue, Oliver found Tom's present under the tree and handed it to her. She ripped it open and then broke down in giggles. 

                "What, what is it?" Sirius managed to get it in his hands and then also laughed. He handed it to Oliver who read the title aloud. 

                "The Art of Bartending."

                "I don't get it." Peter confessed. 

                "You know what happens when Ginny drinks, Wormtail." James explained impatiently.

                "Oh." He nodded. "OOOOHHH!" It seemed to have dawned on him. Ginny laughed and ruffled his hair. 

                "Good ol' Wormtail." 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                They went to the feast at Hogwarts for dinner. The next night Ginny and Remus indeed got to go out on their own. Ginny pulled on her new cloak over her dress robes. As she and Remus started out the door the other three appeared. "Can we walk you there?" Sirius asked. Ginny dropped her keys in an inner cloak pocket and shrugged, exchanging a look with Remus, who also shrugged. 

                "Sure." Remus finally answered. They started through the cold night air, crunching through the snow. "You ready to put that thing on?" He asked Ginny. She nodded and let him fasten the clasp. All of a sudden she was much closer to the ground and feeling different. 

                She tried to ask what was happening but instead hooted. She looked into Moony's eyes and tried again.  **What's going on?**

**You don't mind being an owl animagus, do you? **He smiled at her and she looked at her arms. They were wings. She let out a joyful hoot and tried to fly. She did a spectacular face plant and enticed laughter from them all. She concentrated on her face and memories and found herself at regular height and species. They all chased after her on the road. She touched the pendant. 

                "Moony…" He looked at her and shrugged. 

                "That magic's a golden oldie." He said and then looked straight ahead. "And we needed something to speed the plot along." He winked. Sirius and Ginny exchanged looks and shrugged. 

                "Cool. Well, that was quite enough excitement for the evening. See you all later, have a nice dinner." Sirius kissed Ginny on the cheek. 

                "Don't hit on me, Sirius." She warned. He gave her a 'who me?' expression and laughed. 

                "Hey look, Snivellus!" James cried and the other three started off in the direction of a crouched figure. "Hey Slimeball, watch out or you'll grease up the snow. We can fix that… _Scourgify._" There was a choking noise and laughter. Ginny made to walk towards them, but Remus grabbed her arm. 

                "Come on, Gin." Remus dragged her in the other direction, towards the Pea Coat. It was one of the only really posh restaurants in Hogsmeade. She was just glad Oliver wasn't working tonight, that would make things awkward. She and Remus checked their cloaks and got a table near one of the windows facing the main Hogsmeade road. 

                "Why did you stop me? I love them all, but they can be such gits!" She cried ferociously.

                "Guess I've always been too grateful to them for being my friends that I can't just go in there and ruin their fun." Remus sighed. Ginny took his hand. 

                "I can't imagine not being your friend." She said. "But all the same, I don't think Severus Snape is that bad. And he seems like the kind of kid that's going to run off and be like Harris and Klebold! And the Marauders will be the first to go!"

                "What are you talking about Ginny?"

                "Nothing, never mind." 

                "Anyway, Snape is up to his ears with Dark Magic."

                "Exactly what I mean." Ginny muttered. She ordered vichyssoise to begin, Remus got a salad. 

                "So, you were so excited to come out to eat. What did you want to tell me?"

                "Well, actually I'm telling you this before I tell anyone else. It wasn't intentional, but not unwelcome. I suppose it is kind of unwelcome, but I'm not complaining at any rate."

                "Ginny. Just spit it out."

                "I'm pregnant. I know you guys have been teasing me about gaining weight, but actually the truth is, I'm two months along." He spit out his water onto the tablecloth. 

                "Two months? How could I not notice? I'm your best friend for cripes sake."

                "Disillusionment charms. Anyway, I didn't notice for the first month."

                "How could you not-? Are you pulling one over on me, Gin?" He stared at her seriously.  

                "Not at all. I didn't even notice I had missed my monthly at all. Or if I did, I thought it was stress or something, crazy huh?" She smiled at him and he leaned under the table to rub a hand across her stomach. "I just don't know what to do about it. I can't keep it."

                "Why?"

                "Once I get back…"

                "To your parents who were dead once but are now miraculously alive again, and you're going to them just an hour or two away but we can't send owls and you probably won't ever see us again." Remus shook his head sadly. "Come on, Gin. Even Wormtail isn't that thick. I don't know your secret, but I know you have one. And I know you're thrilled about having this baby, but somehow you can't keep it."

                "You can't keep this secret. It's too big." She accepted her soup and set about eating it.

                "I am the master. Don't argue with me…" She sighed and opened her mouth, and intended to tell him she couldn't but instead let everything fly. 

                "So that's why the baby is a bad thing." She whispered. Remus sat in shock. 

                "I'll see you in the future." He offered taking her hand. "You can see all of us." She didn't answer. "Can you tell me anything?" 

                "No."

                "Nothing?"

                "No, Remus. And you can't tell anyone. I'm taking such a huge risk here." 

                "Oh man, I wonder what Oliver's going to say."

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                 Oliver fainted. Sirius laughed. James sighed. Peter didn't get it. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "So, how do you know this isn't my baby?" Peter wanted to know, rubbing Ginny's quickly growing stomach. 

                "I've got a couple reasons." Ginny laughed. 

                "Five months… you're already huge." It was a new favorite past time of the Marauders to rub her stomach and talk about the baby and names. 

                "Ouch, Prongs. Are you calling me fat?"

                "Nah." A group of girls walked by and he ruffled his hair. Everyone laughed.

                "And you better watch out. I'll get ten times bigger than this. I hope nobody actually thinks I'm 15." She laughed. "That would make for some interesting letters home." 

                "17 isn't much better," Sirius said grumpily. He patted her tummy a final time and went off to talk to the girls by the water's edge.

                "Am I sensing disapproval?" Ginny said sarcastically. 

                "He thinks it's funny as hell." James left as well. "See you later. Going to work the old charm on the ladies." They yelled after him as he went, Peter followed soon after. Remus lay out in the sun. 

                "I know he can't wait to be an uncle." He said happily, of Sirius. Ginny sighed.

                "None of you will probably meet the baby." She said sadly, playing with her stomach. By the time school got out she would only be seven months along. They would wait into the summer and then go back then. Dumbledore had gotten hold of the Death Spinner, but was waiting until everything settled down. Including Ginny's stomach. She would have to do intense exercise aerobics crap to get back into shape.

                "You should name it after me. Or at least in honor of…" Remus leaned back in the sun, delving into his Transfiguration book. 

                "You all say that. I should think that would be the last thing I want to do…" Ginny joked. 

                "Oh, go deliver some mail." Remus said in mock grumping. They both appreciated the joke with hearty laughter. "Really, though. I'm having romantic fantasies about having a child named after me." 

                "Maybe I will. What would you suggest?" 

                "Well, Remus, obviously if it's a boy. And if it's a girl…" He remained silent for a few minutes. Ginny returned to her autumn sun bathing. "Luna." He said finally. "Luna." 

                "Luna? I like it. I'll speak to Oliver."

                "I always knew I was your favorite." Ginny laughed and replaced her sunglasses, watching James succeed in being chewed out by Evans yet again. Life was normal in Hogwarts.

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                "Albus… Albus." Ginny shook the old man's shoulders, hard. He sat up and grabbed onto her hands. 

                "What is it, child?" His voice sounded hoarse. She doubled over as much as she could. 

                "Something's wrong. My water broke and my contractions are within five minutes of each other. And my water… it. It didn't look right." She whispered. He got up and helped her up, setting up a stretcher for her to sprawl across. She moaned and grimaced. 

                "You didn't have to walk up here, I hope." He said as they started towards the hospital wing.

                "No. Oliver was working graveyard at Three Broomsticks, but I used my desire cloak." She groaned through gritted teeth. 

                "I see. Here we are. Just take deep breaths. Poppy!" The young nurse in a nightgown, rushed forward. "She's early." Poppy tsked and helped her onto a bed, where she used her long practiced breathing. Poppy did a quick look over and yelped. 

                "I can't do anything for this, Albus. She needs to go to St. Mungos." 

                "You're a trained healer." Dumbledore said, urgency finally entering his voice. 

                "This needs more than one healer."

                "Very well, shall I go wake some of your friends to go with you?" Ginny shook her head. 

                "O.W.L.s tomorrow. Don't tell them until after the exam." She said this all in time with her breathing. "Please." She added when she could. Albus hesitated for a moment and then grabbed her tightly. She was dropping in and out of consciousness. She felt them moving quickly. 

                "How're you doing? We're at St. Mungos." He whispered. "Oh Merlin, please."

                "When can I take the O.W.L.s?" Ginny muttered. 

                "Anytime. Anytime." 

                "I thought you said…"

                "We'll get them to come in." He whispered comfortingly. Ginny cried out sharply and she felt his arms tighten on her. She was on a stretcher now. There was the lift and then a bed. Now only black. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Peter, Remus, James and Sirius finally got back up to the common room. James still fuming from the break before Transfiguration. "And the whole exam was a bitch!" James exclaimed. 

                "Not to mention the witch giving it." Sirius muttered. 

                "I thought you knew all that rubbish." Remus said snappishly. 

                "Shut up, Moony." Sirius said grumpily. "And I want to know why Stormy got to stiff the exams and we had to sit around in them. Probably just because she's older."

                "Wrong." McGonagall got up from a couch and frowned at them. "She didn't want you to know until after the exams, but last night Mrs. Wesley gave went into labor. An few hours ago, she gave birth to a little girl. 4 pounds 13 ounces." There was silence. Remus flopped down into a chair. 

                "But… but." He tried helplessly. 

                "She's only in her seventh month." James finished. 

                "She will most likely live through the affair, but the child will probably not. She'll want to see you when she comes to. She was talking and thinking about you through the entire time she 'stiffed' the exams. Prepare to travel by Floo powder in half an hour. I don't think I need to tell you the password to Dumbledore's office." McGonagall swept out of the room. 

                Ginny awoke to familiar voices. She sat up eagerly in bed. "Hi guys!" She practically screamed. Dumbledore, who was sleeping in the chair next to the bed, gave a jump. The Marauders looked, surprised at their headmaster's presence. "I've been so bored. I try and talk to the people who come in every hour to give me cheering charms, but they don't talk much. Dumbledore went to sleep an hour or two ago, and Oliver wanted to stay, but had to get back to work. You want to see her?" She jumped off the bed. 

                "You feel alright?" All four of the boys reached out their arms as if to steady her. 

                "They fixed me up in about a minute. It just took a long time to get such a tiny baby out of me. Funny, that." She for a moment looked remorseful. "I've been preparing to give her up the minute I knew I would be having her. But I always figured we'd stop in some suburb in the 80's and drop her off, not have her die before she had even lived. But I can't be too sad because I just get this feeling she lives. Oliver thinks we should name her Luna, Remus." Remus took her hand and she led him to a nursery, barefoot in a hospital gown. "They fixed me up, but they couldn't put me back together as a pregnant lady." She pointed to a covered crib. Healers were gathered around, warm glows of light were radiating from within. 

                "What do you mean stop in the 80's?" James asked suddenly. 

                "I have something to tell you guys when we get back." Ginny said softly. "I love you. I kept thinking about how you would make brilliant uncles."

                "Oh, stop." Sirius blushed. "You flatter me. I'd be awful if I was actually going to get to know this baby, which you're implying I won't." He poked her in the stomach and then instantly regretted it, looking horrified. 

                "Sirius." She wrapped her arms around his neck and started to cry. "Every time I deliver one of my own letters, I'll think of you."

                "Why?" He asked, pulling away to look at her. 

                "Because you think it's funny." She wiped her eyes and turned away, rapping hard on the glass. The healers turned around and motioned for her to come in. She led them through the previously solid glass. "How's she doing?" Ginny walked to the edge of the crib and looked inside, brushing the side of the baby's face with her finger. 

                "She's fiery. She may yet make it. Only time will tell." A friendly looking healer said. 

                "Well, come look at her guys." Ginny let them crowd around. 

                "She's beautiful." Remus finally whispered. 

                "Nah…" Ginny laughed. "She's ugly. Newborns are proof that we were once related to apes. At least she wasn't born with back hair like some babies are." She pulled a face. "She'll favor Oliver in looks, I can tell already. Not saying that Oliver is ugly. She just won't have my hair." She kissed the baby and left, watching the healers crowd back around before she went back to the room. 

                "You weren't supposed to leave." Dumbledore chided. Ginny blushed as the others turned on her. "Of course you all will want to go to the party after exams. You can take turns with Ginny. I daresay she's very tired." Sirius won the brief scuffle and was designated for the first two hour shift. Remus kissed her on the forehead, James rubbed her cheek lightly with his hand, and Peter squeezed her hand quickly before they left. Ginny and Sirius played a game of exploding snap. She finally let exhaustion catch up with her and went to bed for the first time in almost 24 hours. Sirius watched her for a long time before wandering back to the nursery and watched little Luna, her tiny ribcage rising and falling, and wishing that he could hold her, heal her and sing to her that everything would be alright. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny came back from jogging and kissed Oliver soundly. She brushed at the peach fuzz on Luna's head and kissed her also. "How was your meeting with Albus?" She started to change. Oliver watched her, interested. 

                "We'll go back in the next hour, as planned." Ginny looked longingly at Luna. 

                "Where should we drop her off?" She whispered. 

                "Suburbia, early 80's." Oliver tipped the one-month-old into his arms and started to give her her bottle. She grunted. Ginny and Oliver laughed. "As planned."

                "I know. We've talked this out a hundred times. Do I look the same as when I was just a carefree 17-year-old, instead of a mature and fabulous 18-year-old who just finished her now totally useless O.W.L. exams?" She struck a pose and Oliver chuckled. 

                "You look different to me." He admitted sadly. "I don't think you'll ever look the same."

                "Are my wrinkles starting to show?" She joked, trying to keep the situation light. Finally she broke down and threw herself against his chest. "Should we sleep together or spend time with the baby?" 

                "I've been confused about that, too." Oliver leaned back onto the bed, continuing to hold Luna and let Ginny climb beside him, cuddling up to them both. "How's this?" 

                "Good. Very good." Presently, a knock was heard at the door. Ginny opened the door and beamed at Professor McGonagall who had tears in her eyes. 

                "Everything's ready." She whispered. Ginny picked up the note they had written for Luna and stuck it in her blanket. 

                "Okay." Ginny let out a shuddered sigh and let Oliver softly massage her shoulders and she held on with all her life to her child, to Luna. They proceeded to Dumbledore's office. He showed them how to use the odd looking watch and bade them return it with Fawkes when they got to the future, where the phoenix would be waiting in Ginny's bedroom. They gave everyone good-byes and Dumbledore made them promise to visit him in their enlightened state. 

                "I'd only be too glad to see you." He kissed her on the forehead. Oliver pressed down the stop of the watch and Ginny found herself in a row of houses at night. They all had neatly trimmed lawns and attractive set-ups. Except for one. The lawn was teeming with all sorts of magical plants that shouldn't be out. Lights pulsated from their trees and funny creatures chattered. 

                "That's it." She nodded to the house. Oliver didn't say anything. Ginny checked to make sure that the note was still in place. She laid Luna on the front step and hit the doorbell, scurrying away. She went quickly back and kissed her, whispering, "I love you."  She and Oliver hid in a side yard, very surprised when they saw someone they recognized come out and scoop the child up, going back inside the house without even looking around. It suddenly made sense. As they prepared to go back to their time, Ginny watched the swinging nameplate under the mailbox flutter in the breeze. Her daughter was Luna Lovegood. 

                                *                                              *                                              *

                There they were, back in the kitchen. Ginny grabbed onto Oliver. "I can't do it. I changed my mind, go back, go back." 

                "We agreed, love." He kissed her again and again. "We have to go on."                    

                "You're my soul." She whispered. "I can't go without my soul." She cried softly into his shoulder. He held her for a moment and then sighed. 

                "You say that now. Someday you'll hate me for being a prat and yelling at you. We should make some lunch." He whispered into her ear. She nodded. "You get our stuff into your room without their noticing and then come back to help me." She levitated their trunk and various boxes and bags into the room. She tucked her wand into the back of her pants and sat to watch him cook as she had done many times before. All of a sudden she cried out. 

                "Oliver!" He looked up urgently. "We're not wearing the clothes we were before."

                "I don't know what to tell you, Ginny and Tonic." He flipped the vegetables he was frying above the flame. Ginny loved that trick. 

                "And my hair isn't the same. We forgot to do all those things."

                "You can tell them I'm an idiot with my wand."

                "I'll do that." She held onto his hand and dreaded seeing Harry again. "Did you see the nameplate at…"

                "Our child's Luna Lovegood." He finished, rubbing his eyes dramatically. "Do you think we could have done better than that? There was a reason she was called Loony."

                "Don't call our daughter that, you bad man." She teased. She was just pretending that they were back in their flat, or in their rooms in Hogwarts, cooking a little dinner and joking about going to the future. It was short lived. The door swung open and there stood Hermione. 

                "What are you guys doing in here? It's been like 15 minutes." She stopped and sniffed the air. "Whatever it is smells really good."

                "It's one of my favorites." Oliver winked at Ginny and watched as she chopped up chicken and dumped it into a separate pan with chili pepper. 

                "Look, I just wanted to talk about the sort of precarious position I found you and Harry in. That we all found you in." God, that had been so long ago. "I love Harry and all, but I don't think he's the kind of guy to-"

                "I totally agree." Ginny said earnestly. 

                "But…" Hermione looked ready for a fight. "You do?" 

                "Sure I do. I'll slow it down with Harry." Ginny sighed with relief. Explanation for libido letdown number one. Hermione misinterpreted the sigh. 

                "Don't tease me, Ginny. I'm quite serious." 

                "As am I." Ginny winked. "Don't worry about it, Hermione."

                "What's that ring?" Hermione suddenly asked. She didn't notice the hair, the clothes, or the fact that Ginny was in better shape than before the baby. Yet, she noticed the ring. 

                "Oh, nothing." She and Oliver exchanged a glance. They hadn't remembered to do much of anything to avoid questions in the future. At least they hadn't showed up with a baby. 

                "Hmmm." Hermione frowned and looked between them. "Well, anyway. I came in here to argue with you, but the Weasley temper didn't rear its ugly head. Lunch, soon, Gin. Thanks Oliver." Ginny and Oliver broke out in shaky laughter as soon as the door closed. 

                "What are we going to do about these things?" Ginny wiggled hers off of her finger. Oliver did the same with his. Then, wordlessly, they handed their own to the other. Ginny cried and Oliver brushed tears out of his own eyes , finishing up the lunch that was a favorite of Ginny's. They shared a last, kiss and piled the food on five plates. Ginny made to pick two up and make for the living room but Oliver grabbed her arm. They stood for a moment, the only sounds their breathing, with tears streaming down their faces. 

                "Ginny… everything that happened. All the pain and the yelling and everything. I'm sorry. I know that we were in love and love means you never have to say you're sorry."

                "That's not true."

                "No, it's not. I'm not sorry that we fell in love and I'm not sorry about Luna and I'm not sorry about the past. But I am sorry about the way I sometimes treated you and if you and I were to ever get together again in future…"

                "Oliver. Put this ring away somewhere special or wear it around your neck like I intend to do. But forget about us in the future. Please, just forget about it. It won't happen, it would be too weird." She closed her eyes and winced as she said the next words. "Get married to Odessa. Please, pick up where you left behind." She looked into his own, swimming eyes. 

                "I- I'll try." He clutched the ring suddenly determined. "I really am sorry for it all though." He added, almost as an afterthought. "I wish I could go back and…"

"Ssshh." Ginny clutched his face and kissed him. She rubbed the five o clock shadow that she would never run her fingers over again and breathed heavily. "Everything's okay Oliver. It's all in the past."   


	4. Leaving The Kitchen

                A/N Thanks for reviews. Any are appreciated. But I want to reiterate,_ I know I screwed up on time. I don't care, maybe for my next time travel fic, if there is ever a next one. Right now, I don't care about dates, I just want to get this story going. The last chapter was just supposed to be a quick one. A montage of scenes from the fifth year to capture what Ginny was leaving behind when she left. The chapters won't cover years at a time after this, I think. But this is not the end. Oh no! This is the end of Ginny and Oliver however… read on. Review please… not about the times please. I think at this point they annoy me more than any flame I could get. And flames, though I haven't got any, are kind of an annoyance. Like a deer fly._

Disclaimer. I don't own any of the stuff that I don't own. 

                Ginny sat in the comfortable window seat and gazed into the sunlight. Oliver had left an hour ago, there had been one or two awkward moments where Oliver would say something about Ginny or vice versa that was common knowledge to the both of them that shouldn't be. Like the fact that Ginny was allergic to olives. "She told me in the kitchen," was the quick response. Or that "he hadn't seen her eat like that since you were…" in which he trailed off an unsettling silence settled in the wake. There were the usual exchange of looks, but whatever they were thinking was far from the truth. She watched the Tremendous Trio screwing around in the yard. Hermione came in, laughing and tying up her hair. She did a double-take when she saw Ginny. She walked over and leaned to look at her two best friends scramble around in the dust. She took another look at Ginny and sighed. 

                "What's up?" Ginny didn't answer and Hermione heaved another sigh. "Look Gin, if it depresses you that much to distance yourself from Harry, which I watched you doing an awful lot of, then you can go back to him and all. It's just that I think you should proceed with caution. You're still very young…"

                "I'm older than you." Ginny suddenly realized. Hermione looked confused. 

                "Correction. You're a year younger than me." 

                "Oh, right." Ginny looked back out the window. 

                "Anyway." Hermione shook her head. "About Harry." 

                "It's not Harry that I'm, um, sad about." She laughed bitterly. "Not at all." 

                "Oh," Hermione pulled back, obviously surprised. "Well, then…"

                "It's really great to see you again, by the way." Ginny said off handedly. 

                "You sure missed me in the two hours I was gone, uh-huh." Hermione studied Ginny for a moment. "What's really wrong? You've been acting like you haven't seen me in years."         

                "Or about a year." Ginny tried to sound like she was joking. It didn't work. She sighed and chose to ignore Hermione rather than sit through her questions. Luckily, there were no more. Hermione disappe- ared into the kitchen. Ginny had changed her clothes and pulled her hair back into a style that hid her new hair. She wiped off her make-up and tied her ring around her neck with a simple gold chain. It was a short chain, she wouldn't hide it under her robes. She would answer all questions about it, as she knew would come up, and take them in stride. She decided she was going to go crazy in the future, and began to act like it. "Come on, Gin. Snap out of it. This is home. You should be ecstatic. You're home. You're here with your family. Who loves you." It all sounded rather dull, in tone and content. "Your real friends. You're only eighteen. What were you thinking getting married and having a child? Honestly, it's probably good you had to give them all up." She sniffed. "You couldn't handle them anyway, so young." She heard Hermione re-enter. But she knew she hadn't been overheard. She had been speaking softly. 

                Hermione handed her a cup of tea and motioned for her to move over on the bench. She and Hermione had curled up on here when they were smaller. Giggling over hot chocolate while fireworks of the twins would go off in the kitchen. There was barely any room for the two of them now. "So," Hermione said finally, "it's not Harry that's making you sad." She waited for Ginny to do her usual long winded confession which she loved to listen to and analyze. There was nothing, Only a long sip and yet another sigh. Hermione looked bewildered. 

                "Hermione. Do you want to have kids ever? With Ronnie, I mean?" Whatever Hermione was expecting, it certainly wasn't that. It took her a moment to answer.

                "Sure. Later on, even though us wizarding women seem to only be good for one thing." She said scornfully. "I want a career and a marriage before we do all the child bearing crap. That's supposing Ron and I stay together." She added thoughtfully.

                "You don't think you will?" Ginny looked at Hermione, surprised. She thought that her brother and his girlfriend were perfect for each other. 

                "Oh of course I hope we will. But, high school sweethearts?" She shook her head. "It's just so cliché. Anyway, Ron and I have never shared interests. It would be a hard marriage. But a satisfying marriage." She smiled confidently, the real Hermione finally shining through. "A very satisfying marriage." 

                "Okay. Don't say anymore." Ginny joked. "I know my brother quite well enough without a different type of insider's opinion." Hermione laughed and blushed. Ginny's bad mood, for a moment, was elated. Then the storm clouds set back in as another thought added itself to the ones that were making her consider going out to get a pensieve. 

                "Oh, Ginny. What now? Are you angsting about kids for some reason?"

                "The Marauders. That group was so close and now… now two of them are dead. James and Sirius." She sobbed quietly in her hands, to the surprise of Hermione. "And Peter betrayed us all and became a Death Eater. He wasn't like that in the past." She sobbed. "I'm sure of it Hermione. I'm sure. And Remus… he's had such a hard life." She seemed to straighten up suddenly, almost knocking Hermione off the window seat. She started sprinting up the stairs. Hermione followed. 

                "What are you doing? Ginny?" Hermione stood framed in her doorway as Ginny stuffed clothes, modern and 70's into her old tote bag. "And what is Fawkes doing in here?" She suddenly asked in awe. Ginny looked surprised at the bird. She had forgotten he would be here. She stuffed the death spinner in her tote. "Why do you have-? What's going on?" Hermione stood helpless. 

                "What do phoenixes eat?" She asked Hermione suddenly. 

"Uh…" Ginny ignored the one noise her friend seemed to be able to make at that moment and left the window ajar. She patted Fawkes on his beautiful head and kissed his lovely beak. 

"Don't worry, I'll be back in about a week. I won't do anything stupid with the death spinner, I promise. I just don't want you to leave with it quite yet." Fawkes seemed to understand and stood at the open window. Hermione finally found her voice. 

"What do you mean, you'll be back in a week? You can't just up and leave!" Ginny finished counting out her half of the money and stuffing the sizeable sack into her tote. She groaned under the weight and performed a little spell on it to lighten the load. 

"Watch me." She grinned wolfishly and padded down the stairs, walking into her flip-flops and starting out the door. Hermione followed her out to the yard, Harry and Ron watched her. 

"But Ginny!" She called in a last desperate. "What are you doing?"

"Getting in touch with my past. With my roots. See you in a week. You'll talk to Mum and dear old Dad too, won't you? I won't tell you where I'm going, that'll make it easier. But I'll owl. I promise." She grinned. She would probably be back at the Burrow and no one would know. She could make a round trip from London to the Burrow in about an hour. She started at a run as Ron and Harry caught on and started towards her. She ran into the trees and shrunk her bag, turning quickly into Stormy and swooping up into an inconspicuous tree to watch the scene unfold. Ron, Harry, and Hermione panted as they thudded into the clearing. 

"Where did she go?" Ron asked, looking around the ground. 

"Dunno?" Hermione shrugged. "She was acting very oddly after lunch though, did you notice?"

"Yeah, I did. Hey, you don't suppose Oliver did anything-?" Harry began to flex his muscles. He reminded Ginny forcibly of James just then, she was half expecting him to reach up and ruffle his hair.

"Nah. I know Ginny. The bloke would never have recovered." Ron said somewhat proudly. 

"So. Do we just wait for her to owl and deduce where she is?" Hermione shrugged, giving the clearing a final once over. 

"I guess so. How did she disappear though…?" Harry finally grinned. "Break out the good ol' magnifying glasses?"

"Dust em off, polish em up a bit." Ron joked. Hermione slung her arms around the two boys shoulders and they started back out. *That was a quick recovery* Ginny stretched out her wings and soared quietly above the treetops and forward to what her owl sense told her was London. She flapped her wings until she was as high as she was comfortable going. She blinked uncomfortably at the hot sun and the light it produced. As Stormy, she much preferred the temperature and lighting conditions of night. The Marauders, though Peter had come up with it, had christened her Stormy for her eyes. Bolts of lightning struck through their violet depths at frequent intervals. It was a brilliant thing she had added when she was perfecting her disguise as an exquisite hawk owl. The 'blonde' highlights in her auburn feathers, the smooth cut of her violently pink talons as they transitioned to her tiger stripe scaly legs. The Marauders always said she was the most eccentric looking owl they had ever seen. 

The Marauders. She didn't want to think of them. Oh, but she did. It was so painful, she hadn't seen them in a month. Seeing her friends and brother hadn't helped. It had only hurt. It hurt so badly. Like a knife in her chest. She whimpered, or hooted, and pushed ahead furiously. She needed something, someone of the past. She would go to Remus, but she didn't know where he was. So she was going to Tom her second father of sorts. She would swing it in the Leaky Cauldron. Maybe fly out to see Dumbledore if she had it in her. One of them was bound to know the whereabouts of Remus. She didn't know what she would say to him. She would tell him about Luna, whom she had told him about when she didn't know how dear he was to her. It was strange, she had two lives now, people she had known all her life were suddenly more because of events thirty years ago. Deaths she believed she had recovered from, that had never been largely significant, were suddenly daggers in her heart. And Luna…

She felt awful, the worst mother to walk the earth. She had abandoned her baby and her baby was a lunatic. No, that wasn't fair. Luna did favor Oliver in looks, she was a handsome girl. And she was dreamy and wide-eyed, sure, but she was also intelligent and blunt. She had gotten the intelligence at least, from Ginny. Oliver's true brilliance only came out when he was playing on the Quidditch field, which he had missed in the year, even though he had gone up to the pitch to stay in shape occasionally. James, who usually regarded Oliver with distant dislike at best, was impressed with his Quidditch playing abilities. She wondered if Luna was any good on a broom, like she and Oliver both were. She had never bothered to notice in flying class. Well, at least she hadn't been so bad or good that she stuck out particularly in Ginny's memory. She was only happy that Luna was Luna and not one of the boys that she had dated or something like that. She would have had a harder time swallowing that than the fact that she had mothered Luna Lovegood, who was technically older then she. 

She wondered what would happen if she saw Luna now, well, she would find out when she got back to Hogwarts at any rate. She would want to hold her in her arms and kiss her forehead and let her tell everything that had happened. Ginny knew that she would want to tell Luna everything, and wondered exactly how far fetched it would sound to someone as gullible and believing as Luna. Luna, from what she gathered of their brief conversations, was deeply loyal to her family and her deceased adopted mother. But then, she had also gathered that they hadn't told her that she was adopted, or that it was one of the only pieces of information she withheld from everyday conversation. She thought of Luna and wondered why she had never realized before that Luna and she had the exact same eyes. *Why did I never realize I was looking into my own eyes, making contact with my own blood?* Ginny knew the truth wouldn't have occurred to her in her wildest dreams. Unless of course, Luna was her spitting image. Which luckily she wasn't. That would have made for some interesting questions and encounters. 

Ginny sighed and changed her directions slightly, she was going too far west. She didn't know what she felt anymore, or who she was. She had been so sure before, of everything, especially of herself. No one knew her now, least of all herself. Ginny strained to increase her speed. Maybe she could touch fond memories of the past and manage to stay sane in the future. Maybe not. 

                                *                                              *                                              *

She unshrunk her bag and slung it over her shoulder, pushing the door of the Leaky Cauldron open and listening with her eyes closed and a warm smile on her face as the bell tinkled. She looked up at the bustling crowd. She looked to the bar, at the bald, toothless man who she adored. She pushed through and came behind the bar. She came up behind him and whispered, "Tom." He gave a start and turned to her. 

"Miss Weasley," He said evenly, "I'd appreciate it if you stayed in front of the bar. Unless there's an emergency?" He finished polishing a glass and set it down, looking at her expectantly. Her heart fell for a moment and then she understood. He didn't know it was her yet… his Ginny.

"Well Tom, there is an emergency."

"What?" He looked suddenly urgent, grabbing onto her shoulder. 

"I can't find any damn Fizzy Pumpkin Juice. Don't suppose you've been keeping a case for me these twenty nine years?" She watched, delighted, as he realized the change in her. He jumped forward and swung her around best as he could, laughing. She hung onto him joyfully. "Have you missed me?" He frowned and she watched several moods pass over his face. 

"I've missed those youthful good looks of yours." He winked and seemed to grasp himself. Ginny tied an apron on, stashing her duffel under the bar. "And the rest of you lass, never fear." She grinned and started doling out drinks and food in response to that appeared suddenly on the rotating rack. The system had changed, she hadn't remembered. "You've just gotten back then?" Tom joined her in serving the busy place. "From… uh…. From."

"Yes. I was going insane in the house after Oliver left. You know little Luna," He nodded. He had only seen her once but he loved babies. "That's Luna Lovegood."

"I've always sort of wondered." He rolled his eyes. "Honestly, your offspring Ginny."

"Just one." She corrected. "Hopefully, if I have anymore, they won't be that kooky." He shrugged. "Alright you old goat, what are you hiding?" She joked. 

"Well now that you've insulted me, your elder, I'm not telling you." She laughed at his offended tone. She had missed Tom, too. 

"I think I'll stay here a day or two then fly to Hogwarts. Another few days there and I'll scoot off to see Remus. You don't know where he is, do you?" She asked hopefully, almost missing the bowl of soup with the ladle she wielded. 

"Careful there." He admonished. "I don't know where Lupin is, but I know that he's at some beachside house of a friend of his for the rest of the summer. Don't you worry about it. Dumbledore will know for sure. He's been keeping careful tabs on our friend."

"I just can't believe it, Tom. I kept expecting the Marauders to come in and try and pull off my skirts while attempting to buy me a drink. Amazing, what happened to such a tight group of friends."

"It just ain't right." Tom agreed somberly. "I've never seen a friends so tight as you and the Marauders." Ginny shook her head to clear emotion from it. 

"I only got a year with them. I wish I would have a lifetime." Tom didn't answer. They discussed recent events and not so recent events. She sadly reminisced their New Year's together. 

"You got out just in time," Tom finally said. "The next year, Voldemort began to rise. People thought he was a lunatic, at first. Then lots of people thought he had the right idea. Then… then they got terrified when they saw what he would do to make ends meet. His ends meet. It was a dark time you skipped, Gin. You should be glad about that, at least."

"I would have lived Voldemort's reign to be by my friends. I would have lived through it a hundred times." She stuck her chin up proudly and her tone was stubborn. Tom took a long mournful look at her and sighed. 

"I know it. But you'dve had a tough life, fair Virginia, had you stayed. Brutal." 

"I know that. But things aren't exactly peaches now, are they? And I would've been with the Marauders, and you, and Dumbledore, and Oliver… and Luna." 

"They're not peaches." He agreed. He was thoughtful before he answered again. "And mayhap you wouldn't have had all those things. You stick out, Gin, you always have." She tugged a strand of her hair. "No more then the simple Weasley traits and charm, you're loveable. To the core. Why seeing you with the Marauders. It was like they were all your teddy bears, your boyfriends even. You just grab onto people and they're stuck on the ride whether they want to get off or not."

"Really?" She sniffed. It was a sweet thing to say, really. She thought. 

"Really. I was miserable without you lass, without you helping out all the time. When you were at school and all. You're like a sweet little child who follows you around asking questions that you never get tired of answering. Once you're friends with you, you're friends for life. It's not a bad thing. It's not a sexual thing either." She blushed. "It's just a fact."  

"Oh Tom. I think I can endure the future as long as you're here." He shook his head. "Do you have a vacant room I can rent?" 

"RENT?" He asked outraged. "You'll be staying for free. And we'll manage to find one. Even if I have to boot out another customer. Oh, you think I'm kidding?" He asked at her laugh, though he smirked.

"Tom!" She hugged him again. "I've missed you so. I know it's nothing to what you've had to wait. But, oh…" She brushed tears out of her eyes and grinned as Tom showed his own gums. "You haven't asked about Oliver." She said sternly. 

"Alright, how's the bloody young man." Tom went to wiping off the counter.  

"I told him to get married. To Odessa Sprout, who have been quite the popular couple in the Quidditch times. She's quite good, you know. She got onto Scotland's finest. The public loves her and everyone loves Oliver." 

"He's quite famous in this time, isn't he?" Tom said respectfully, still not saying anything on her revelation. "He's good at Quidditch then? What is he on? Puddlemere United?" Ginny nodded.

"Please say something, Tom. My heart's just been ripped out and placed in the 80's and in the arms of Odessa Sprout. Won't you say anything at all?" She asked desperately. 

"What about that young man you've been seeing in this time?"

"You very well know that I've been dating Harry Potter. That young man, honestly." Tom grinned sheepishly and tossed his rag around in his hands. 

"Well?" He asked expectantly. "I've said something."

"Well, in the year I was gone, Harry became a brother instead of a boyfriend. You can't just pick up a relationship when your views and yourself have gone through so many changes. It just wouldn't be right." Ginny sighed and placed a garnish on top of one of the orders going out. 

"So how do you expect your Oliver to go through all that, just as you've ordered him?" Tom asked, making his infuriating point. 

"It wouldn't work in the future, Tom. Anyway, Oliver's a better actor and a stronger person than me. He'll make it." 

"You would wish that on him? A life of unhappiness perhaps, just to keep things normal?" He shook his head. "Stranger things have happened, then you and Oliver."

"I've changed my mind. I don't want you to say anything." Ginny said grumpily. Tom shook his head and ruffled her hair, pinching her cheek.

"You've never liked to hear the bad."

                "Can you blame me?" She sighed and blew a lock of hair away from her face. 

                "Can't say that I can." He echoed her sigh and sent her upstairs to room four to unpack. She dragged her ratty tote up the stairs and threw it unceremoniously onto the luggage rack. She pulled out her toiletries and tramped off to have a long shower. In actuality she hadn't taken one in just a day, but she felt that it was much longer. She had time travel jet lag. She stepped into the steaming spray with a satisfied spray. The Leaky Cauldron. She was getting closer to home. 

                The next day she spent mostly with Tom, helping out and walking around Diagon Alley. She sent a letter to her family stating that she was fine, but she sent it with another owl. She was emotionally exhausted, and couldn't put up with the conflict of finally seeing her family. She would see them soon enough, in just a week's time. It was shaping up that her little holiday would only last a week or two. She needed to escape from the normality of the future and visit her now shattered past. 

The second day she apparated to the Ministry of Magic. She had gotten her license, but preferred flying overall. She waited quietly for the cool female voice to ask her her name and purpose. "Virginia Wesley," The name was automatic to her, almost as if it belonged to her more then Weasley, "I'm here to recover some documents." She waited for a visitor's badge to clang into the change slot, but instead found herself being lowered into the ground. She shrugged and walked past the wand weighing to the lift. She knew where filing was, simply because she had helped her father out at MOM before. When she got there, she weaved between the bright orange filing cabinets to the one that read 'marriage licenses' in loopy red writing. She slid open the W-Z drawer and went rifled through it for a few moments. She pulled out the license, it's pale violet writing and flaky pink parchment. Someone cleared their throat behind her and she turned, clutching the document to her chest. "Oliver." She breathed. 

"Ahh." He said uncomfortably. "I see you beat me to it."

"Would you prefer the birth certificate or this?" She waved it in the air. He strode to her and looked at the piece of paper lovingly. 

"I'm not sure." He said earnestly. 

"Whatever you want, love, I'll give to you." He didn't speak for a moment, running his fingers over the ring around her neck. 

"You know what I want." She held up the marriage license, shrugging. He chuckled. "I want you." He whispered suggestively in her ear. She bit her lip at his warm breath and she was remembering other such instances when he had drawn so close. She could tell he was too, because he kissed her lightly on the earlobe and then tugged at it with his teeth. He smoothed down the velvety down that grows on everyone's ears with teeth and tongue. Ginny whimpered. 

"Oliver, please." She protested without much conviction. Or perhaps she was egging him on.

"I've missed you." He growled. 

"Two days. It's only been two days." He didn't answer as he pushed her back against a wall. He kissed her in a way that he knew she loved. And she fit perfectly into his arms, as only long time couples can do. He put his thigh in between her legs and let her lift herself off the ground using the wall as support. He pulled small bruises from her neck with his teeth and brought moans to the surface of her now exposed mouth. His hands roamed over her waist and all the way up to tangle in her hair. She did the same. Those wonderful curls, Luna's hair, she realized. 

"Please Ginny." There were tears in his eyes now, threatening to spill. "Please Gin, just one more time." She bit her lip and panted, letting her feet hit the ground and her mind to refocus. 

"I have room." She finally managed. "I have a room back at the Leaky Cauldron. Room 4. Let's get Luna's birth certificate and get out of here. Just one more time. Promise?" Oliver leaned into her and she stroked his hair, wishing it didn't have to be so. 

"I promise." He said in a defeated tone. "Though I don't know why…"

"Please." She whispered. "Just one more time."

                                *                                              *                                              *              

Oliver pulled on his pants and scratched his stomach. Ginny remained in bed, tangled in the sheets. He looked at Ginny, her eyes slightly slitted with the passion. The web and tangle of the bedclothes revealed a long, white leg, a side view of a slightly thick, curvy waist. His favorite, though he didn't know why, her thin, wiry arms and well shaped, plump hands. He rubbed his thumb against one of the aforementioned hands. She seemed to come to, slightly, and reached up to pull him to her. They shared a sweet kiss, so sweet that finally, both of their tears came. She held on to him in an embrace and finally leaned in, to whisper into his ear. "I love you, I'm so sorry." They stayed that way for a long time, before he felt Ginny go limp and her breath even. Tears still glistened on her cheeks and her fluttering eyes were red. He wiped his own and grinned as she began snoring. How he loved her. How he would miss her. He kissed her eyelids and her tear stained cheeks and lips. He stood up and crossed to the little desk, writing for awhile before apparating home to his flat. 

"Oliver, baby?" He had apparated right onto the couch and a sleeping Odessa. "Where were you all day, honey?" She stretched as he stumbled off her and managed to sit up, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.       

"Don't worry about it, Dessie." He kissed her forehead, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. 

"I will worry about it." She said grumpily getting to her feet and grabbing onto his neck. She gently butted his nose with her own. "For all I know you've spent the day sleeping with… Ginny Weasley. Weren't you over at the Weasley place a few days ago?"

"For lunch. And I wasn't at the Burrow today. I went to the Ministry of Magic to look for something." He released her and started towards the kitchen. "What do you want for dinner, sweets?" 

"Chicken Paprika, I think." She was running around in her underwear again. 

"What if someone came to the door?" He asked, exasperated with her habits. 

"I'd answer it and ask them in for tea." She joked nuzzling up to him again. 

"Why do you always have to sleep in my flat?" He complained. "You have a home to go home to." He began to wave his wand around and watched ingredients clatter around, throwing themselves in various pots and haven seasonings thrown onto them. 

"Why are you so grumpy? Honestly, you come home smelling like sex and in a bad mood. If you have a mistress, the least you can do is be happy after visiting her. You haven't wanted anything from me since you got back from the Weasleys. What's up?" She said angrily, pouting and looking hurt. 

"I'm sorry, Odessa." He grabbed her and she leaned into him happily. She felt him swallow and sigh. "I'm just really tired." She jumped up behind him on the counter and straddled his back rubbing her knuckles into his muscles. 

"Why didn't you just say something, goose? I know how to help out." She whispered. He turned around and held her at arm's length. She gazed at him eagerly. She wanted him, he had never met anyone as fiery and always on as Odessa. Well, maybe Ginny beat her for fiery. She had wild, flyaway black hair. Like her mother. She left it untamed, tying it up only for games. It was attractive for her, the wild nest on her head. She was slender with needy, watery eyes and a thin upper lip and thick lower lip. She had a beautiful narrow face and high cheekbones and jutting chin. She was slender and built with a small chest and thick thighs and ankles. Altogether, she shouldn't have been beautiful but was breathtakingly so. And she desired him above anyone else.

He leaned forward to kiss her and pretended that the hair he grasped was tomato red, the lips he bruised were plump and soft. The skin he nipped was ivory white and freckled. The woman that he thrilled was Ginny. But he couldn't pretend very much. Odessa was bones and muscle. And even when Ginny was working out every day to lose her baby weight, her muscles were still concealed underneath a soft supple layer of flesh. She was fat by any means, but full figured in the best way possible. You could mold yourself to Ginny. You could never fully absorb Odessa's  body structure. Odessa was knobby, wild and skinny. Ginny was soft, adventurous and curvy. He would have to choose between them. And the one he chose wouldn't be in his arms for the rest of his life. 

He chose Virginia. 

                                *                                              *                                              *

_Dear Ginny, _

_This is going to get sappy, so hold on to your hair. I left you the marriage license. I get this feeling that you won't be seeing me anymore. Not because you don't want to, I just get this feeling. And if I'm trusting my feelings, I'll need the birth certificate for something. I don't know, maybe I'm so used to being able to See in the past that I'm raring to go in the future. If you really want the birth certificate, you can owl me and I'll ignore my feelings. I'm getting good at it. _

_It's only been two days, and already I don't want Odessa. But I'll listen to you, like I always do, and ask her to marry me. It might work, and it might not. Maybe you didn't notice today, but I've got your ring in that little space in my pocket watch. I get it out every day and just sit there running my hands over it. I saw mine around your neck. I'm proud of you for wearing it so proudly. _

_So you ran away from home for a week to go to the Leaky Cauldron? And then you're off to Hogwarts and to see Remus Lupin? I didn't tell you this when you were telling me about your escape, but Hermione Granger owled me last night and asked whether I knew your whereabouts. Is she really observant or are we really obvious? I'm hoping it's the former, because if you're allowed to tell me to return to Odessa you damn well better be with Potter. Me… saying that with my awful jealous streak that you were always yelling at me about. And that your friends always yelled at you about. _

_I really don't mind the Marauders. In fact, before we left and you told me about the other part of the Marauders, I was impressed. And I still think you're the most brilliant looking Animagus out there. Beautiful and brilliant. I'll know every time, too, when you deliver a letter to me yourself. Which I hope you'll do every now and again. _

_I don't know if you can really do it discreetly, but if you could and if you feel so inclined, could you get me a few pictures of our daughter. I never really knew her at Hogwarts. I talked to her all of once if that. She stood out and blended in at the same time. If only she had your hair, I'm sure I would remember her more. It's amazing to me that I saw my little girl grow up and I didn't even know it. Didn't even care. I regret that more now I think than anything I've done. _

_So, the Quidditch season starts soon and I hope you'll come out to see me and all. I really do want to see you again even if I have to marry Odessa. She really is a brilliant Quidditch player. You're not bad yourself though. I know you're a chaser in the future. _

_Here's where I pour my heart out. Brace yourself. I love you. I don't know that  we would have stayed together in the past if we had had a chance together. But I do know that because of the way we parted now, I'll always remember you fondly. Always. We were married, we toiled together, we had a child together. We lived the basic American dream in just a year. And we're so young. You especially. We've both grown up and are better people I think because of it. It'll hurt a little more when things happen in this future knowing the bliss of the past. Of you. _

_Before, you were simply a little memory in my mind. But now, you're my heart and my mind and my senses. My intoxication. I don't ever want to be apart from you, but I know that I have to be. It wasn't meant to be. We've both said so one hundred times, and I know that it's true, but it doesn't stop me from hurting. And I do hurt, so badly. I'm not the kind of guy to wear my heart on my sleeves, you know that better than anyone I think. But I'll wear it on my cuff if you want me to. And if you ever want me back. I want you. Always. _

**_Love has earth to which she clings_**

**_With hills and circling arms about-_**

**_Wall within wall to shut fear out. _**

**_But Thought has no need for these things,_**

**_For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings._**

****

**_On snow and sand and turf, I see_**

**_Where Love has left a printed trace_**

**_With straining in the world's embrace. _**

**_And such is Love and glad to be. _**

**_But Thought has shaken his ankles free._**

****

**_Thought cleaves the interstellar gloom_**

**_And sits in Sirius' disc all night,_**

**_Till day makes him retrace his flight,_**

**_With smell of burning on every plume,_**

**_Back past the sun to an earthly room. _**

****

**_His gains in heaven are what they are. _**

**_Yet some say Love by being thrall_**

**_And simply staying possesses all_**

**_In several beauty Thought fares far_**

**_To find fused in another star. _**

****

_I love you. _

_Oliver._


	5. No Longer Home

Disclaimer- I don't anything Harry Potter related. Sadly. If I was J.K., I would be hopping to write the 6th book. You know I always sort of wonder whether Mrs. Jo Rowling writes fanfiction. Hmmm    

She apparated into Hogsmeade the next afternoon, after a long breakfast and good bye to Tom. She promised she would visit again. He nodded and didn't watch her as she left, instead furiously rubbing a spot on the counter. She wondered why, as she had lunch in the three broomsticks, talking to Rosie and thinking about times gone past. "I remember when you used to come in here, you old drunk. Didn't realize until last year it was you." She drained a mug of ale and smiled. "What do you suppose you miss the most?" She looked far off and her eyes didn't meet Ginny's. 

"My friends. And Dumbledore and Tom Fellows at the Leaky Cauldron, they were like dads at the end of it for me. My husband and child. The 70's, the quiet before the storm. My cat." She shook her head.

"Whatever happened to little Diabla?" Rosie refilled her glass with pumpkin juice and waved away the offered change. "I always liked her."

"I gave her to Peter Pettigrew." Rosie raised her eyebrows, everyone knew the truth about that, now. "He mentioned giving her to an aunt or something of the like. You remember him." The woman nodded and sighed. 

"Shame, shame. Nice enough fellow. Bit stupid." She said with a smirk. 

"He always was." Ginny laughed. "Everyone hates him now so much. And I do! I do! I just wish someone would remember for once that the reason he was in the Marauders is because he was a wonderful person. He was slow, sure. But he was so sweet and kind and he could always flatter you. He was funny and… and no one remembers that. It's funny. You've always hated your best friend when he does something wrong. You've always been close when he gets recognized for something. People are such odd creatures. So few of them have a true sense of loyalty." She finished her salad and sighed. 

"Right enough. Now, you're depressing me. Scoot on up to the school. If you can't stay there, you can kip in the back room like you used to before you got your place. Go on. You're bothering me." She waved the worn rag that seemed an essential accessory to the kindly bartender. Ginny enjoyed the quiet walk up to the school. She paused at Hagrid's hut and knocked the door. He wasn't home. The school was so peaceful in the summer. She took off her shoes and walked through the grass, stopping to wade in the lake and greet the giant squid. Who was basically good natured she had discovered. One of her pranks had been ditching class and riding the giant squid around the lake. Not technically a prank, but fun nonetheless. 

"Oh, god. I want to go home." She sighed and didn't envision the Burrow. She saw faces and good times. Events of 30 years ago.  The heavy oak doors were thrown open, but she found no one in the school. Even as she wandered up to Dumbledore's office. She knew it was only a matter of time until she figured out Dumbledore's password. They were always candies, after all. Five minutes later, she wasn't so sure. "Feather Quill?" She tried and opened her mouth to go down all the candy she could remember and hadn't tried, when the gargoyle jumped aside to give her access. She stumbled up the stairs and made to knock, but stopped when she heard voices. She found a need to eavesdrop this conversation for some reason. 

"I know I'm trusted by the Ministry, Pops." She heard a woman's voice. "But I don't feel comfortable tipping them off if we're not absolutely sure."

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, young lady." She heard Dumbledore admonish. She blanched, Dumbledore had a daughter?

"Don't call me young lady, I'm 47 and I've got a birthday coming soon. Ugh, that sounds awful to say. Can you believe it? I'm almost 50. Anyway, I'll do it, but I won't like it. And you could just put in an anonymous tip…"

"But they might not…" Ginny chose this time to knock. They obviously were done explaining what they were talking about and would refer to this thing only as 'it'. How boring. Dumbledore opened the door wide and then closed it quickly so he was barely fitting into the crevice. 

"Miss Weasley." He whispered. "What are you doing here?" He sounded friendly, but distant. 

"Oh Albus." She sighed. "I simply had to come. And please call me Ginny, or Miss Wesley. I don't particularly feel like being called Weasley right now. I don't feel like a Weasley at all." She sighed but brightened at his change of face. 

"I suppose you needed someone to talk to." He said kindly, reaching out to brush a strand of hair from her face. "Naturally, well. If you'll wait a moment, I just need to say goodbye to my company." He closed the door. Ginny leaned against. 

"A Miss Weasley, who prefers to be called Wesley is waiting for me and I have a feeling this appointment is rather urgent." He cleared his throat significantly. 

"Oh, Pops. It's rather important, isn't it? Couldn't you tell her something different than what you told me? I know she can hear us, so I won't mention us. But please. Save her." 

"I couldn't. I don't know what I'm not to say, and you certainly won't be here to dictate." He said stubbornly. The woman sighed. 

 "I remember this all so well. I was so foolish." She heard sniffling and sighed. This woman was a twit. Couldn't she just leave? "Yeah, well, the twins are going to come over tonight for dinner. They just celebrated their eighteenth." She sighed again. 

"I know my granddaughters' birthday." Dumbledore said curtly. "Go on. I've just said I have a meeting." 

"Won't you please just…?" 

"No." There was silence for awhile. She walked inside and watched Dumbledore close a window. 

"I didn't know you had a daughter." Ginny said as he crossed the room. 

"Not many do." He motioned for her to sit. "I like to watch out for her safety. And my granddaughters. Wouldn't want to be accused of favortism."

"I never knew any Dumbledores. But of course your daughter's children would have taken her husband's name. Who are her children?"

"A year older than you. You may remember Parvati and Padma Patil." Ginny absorbed the shock quietly. No one had never mentioned. 

"Hold on. Did she marry that really handsome fellow, William Patil?" Ginny remembered him. He was extremely attractive. "The twins don't really follow his looks do they?" She realized what she had said and slapped a hand over her mouth. "Not saying they're ugly."

"They follow their father's looks." He said simply. 

"But…" She opened her mouth and he held up a hand. 

"Enough about my daughter and the rest of my family. 

"One more. I promise." Ginny winced as he rolled his eyes. 

"One more."

"I didn't know you were married." She said. 

"Alas, a bachelor for life. I believe. I could still find someone." He shrugged. Ginny thought of McGonagall and Dumbledore, before promptly shaking her head. Okay, never mind those thoughts. "My daughter's adopted." Dumbledore said before she could open her mouth again. 

"What's her name?" Ginny smiled at him helplessly. Dumbledore was such an interesting man.

"Ah, ah. That's two questions. Breaking promises, honestly." He grinned to show her he was kidding. She grinned back but the grin quickly faded. He had kept her momentarily away from her mood, but not much could anymore. 

"I miss the past so much, Albus. What ought I to do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" She shrugged. 

"I would miss my family if I went back. And I _CAN'T _go back. But I have a feeling I'll miss the Marauders if I don't go back. That I'll miss everybody. And seeing the Marauders all broken up as they are now, it's almost unbearable. How do you see such a close group of friends fall apart as they did and not go insane?" She put her head in her hands. 

"I replace my insanity with rage. I don't suppose you've ever seen me angry. I've seen things, awful things. I do not wear my heart on my sleeve, only fools do that." Ginny thought back to Oliver's letter and sighed. "Neither do I lock it in my chest. I let it dictate my emotions and my actions. But I let my mind make decisions."

"Aren't most of your actions the same as decisions?" Ginny asked, confused. 

"It is quite one thing to be angry and to reach out and curse someone. But my mind knows not to, so I do not strike every time I am angry."

"Maybe I've seen you angry." She said defiantly. 

"No foolish prank does anything more than annoy me. At most. Generally I am amused. Go on then, you're onto me." He said dryly as Ginny laughed. 

"So you're telling me to follow my heart but not let it make decisions for me. That decisions have to come from the mind and that the heart, while often true, is foolish and rash." Ginny said hesitantly.

"I have always said you were wise." Was his reply. 

"I understand the moral but I still don't know what to do. D'you still think I'm wise?" Ginny asked hopefully. 

"Always." He chuckled. "You have to make the decision. And the action."

"Can I stay here? To work it all out, I mean?"

"No." He said firmly, right away. Ginny frowned, feeling hurt. 

"Can you tell me where Remus is then?" He nodded and she smiled. That was good at least.

                                *                                              *                                              *

Ginny apparated onto the sand and saw a solitary figure lounging on the ground, across a towel. She looked down at him, he lowered his sunglasses and looked at her. 

"Lazing about at a time like this?" She whispered. 

"Ginny. How are you? How's your family? What do you mean a time like this?" He smiled up at her and she sat next to him on the towel looking out to sea. 

"With Voldemort as he is? I thought no one relaxed anymore." She said sarcastically. She was getting annoyed. She was his best friend after all, why didn't he acknowledge her fondly? 

 "That's not true. Life is surprisingly lax compared to what it was several years into Voldemort's reign first time round." He watched her and continued to look out to see.

"Yeah, Hogwarts was pretty calm back then, huh?" Ginny tried to give him a hint. 

"Uh huh." He wasn't catching on. She was fed up.

"I keep showing up!" He jumped at her sudden bellow. "And I show up and I act different, I know I do. And everyone treats me like sweet little 17 year old, Ginny!" She grabbed the ring on her neck and shoved it into his face. "Recognize this, Remus? Why does no one seem to notice the changes except for me and Oliver. I'm different. I am." She said obstinately. Remus grabbed her and pulled her in for a long bone crushing hug. 

"Of course you are. But you have to realize, if you had seemed knowing at some moment and we had spilled the beans we might have scared you away from your fate." He said, though his words were slightly muffled in her hair and against her shoulder. "And you've always had the tendencies to show up at the oddest of times."

"Yeah, well." She tried to sound disgruntled but instead clung to him furiously. "This would look so odd to the passerby." She giggled. He stroked her hair and rocked her from side to side. 

"I've missed you." He whispered. "Everything, you're drinking, being an uncle…"

"Luna Lovegood. Did you know?" She said sadly. He nodded and laughed, finally letting her fall back and stare at him rapturously propped up on her elbow. 

"How old are you, anyway, Remus?" 

"46." He soaked up the sun. "An old fart. Over the hill, I'm afraid."

"What is Dumbledore's daughter's name?" She asked suddenly. A faint bell was tinkling in the back of her head and she couldn't get it to stop. 

"I didn't know he had a daughter." Remus said. She was too distracted to pick up on something that was second nature to her by now. Remus was lying. 

"Oh." She whispered, shrugging. "I want to go back, Remus." She suddenly looked up in her eyes. "I've been to see Dumbledore. And… and I was thinking it was impossible before. But I think, now, that I can do it."

"You're forgetting of course, that the two things you want back the most won't be there. You know that because Luna was in your year. I suppose Oliver might go back with you, but it doesn't sound like you would ask him." He said, surprising Ginny, as always, with his perceptiveness. 

"I miss other things too, Remus. I miss you certainly. I miss Sirius and Wormtail and… James." She said finally. "I miss James. I miss the 70's." 

"You got out just in time." Remus said.

"Everyone says that, but I would've done it, all the same. I would've lived that, I think."

"Are you sure? You don't know what time were like back then. It was bad then. Very bad. You… I don't think you'd say that if you knew."

"Well, I won't ever know, will I?" She said grumpily. "I could though. I just want help making these decisions. And you're no help! I remember you young and I remember you… well… old. And I want to grow old with you. That wasn't a marriage proposal, mind you."

"I should hope not." She punched him on the arm. 

"You're just jealous." Remus rubbed his eyes and didn't answer. Ginny realized she had just hit a sensitive spot and didn't even know it. A muddy brown owl flew and landed on the towel in the narrow space between them. Ginny tried to focus on it, but found she couldn't. 

"I don't know." She sighed. "I'll owl you, Remus. You should come to dinner sometime. We Wesleys." She took a deep breath and tried to continue. "We'd love to have you. The Weasleys, I mean." She stood to go, and noticed Remus ogling and the owl, looking between them like a tennis match. 

"I'll see you, Ginny." He said breathlessly. Ginny shook her head. 

"Fine." She started purposefully away. 

"Aw, GnT. I didn't mean it that way." Only his use of her old nickname made her turn back. 

"I love you, Remus. Moony." She whispered. 

"I love you, Gin." He said lazily, from the sand. She squatted for a final hug, before apparating away. The owl suddenly became a tired looking woman. She often reminded the viewer of Molly Weasley in her younger days. Except she was skinny, disturbingly curvaceous. Only a few people knew that was because she would tweak with her body structure because she was an Animagus. Streaks that have previously been attractive blonde were salt n pepper silver. "How do you do that?"

"Haven't you learned by now that my Disillusionment charms are the best out there?"

"Yes." He said lying back on the towel. 

"Was that me?" She whispered.

"Yes. You know it as well as I." The woman heaved a great sigh.

"Well, good luck then." She saluted the place where Ginny had previously been standing. "You'll need it." 

                                *                                              *                                              *

"GONE THREE DAYS! I SUPPOSE YOU'RE LUCKY YOU DIDN'T STAY THAT ENTIRE WEEK YOU WERE SPEAKING OF!" Molly was bellowing, clattering things around the kitchen. Ginny refused to bow her head, sitting up proudly in her chair, watching her mother. "YOU WON'T TELL US WHERE YOU WERE! WON'T TELL US ANYTHING! What has gotten into you?" She crashed down into a chair, finally getting tired. She looked around defeated. "And where's the table?"

"That wasn't my fault. I won't tell you anything. I don't have to. I'm of age." Ginny said stubbornly. Molly put her head in her hands. Ginny still, loftily, refused to look at her mother. She blinked tears out of her eyes and looked at her mother, slumped as she was in the chair. "What would you have if you had to give one of us up?" She asked suddenly.

"OH, SWEET MERLIN, YOU'RE PREGNANT?" Molly seemed to be getting her second wind. "I SUPPOSE THIS IS HARRY'S DOING?YOU FOLLOW THESE URGES YOU GET AS A TEENAGER AND LOOK WHERE IT GETS YOU. LOOK!" 

"_I'm not pregnant. And for god's sakes lower your voice, mother." Ginny hissed. Molly looked surprised and complied. Her children never acted like this, Ginny especially. Ginny got flustered and cried, occasionally bellowing back. "Never mind." She stood up and walked to the edge of the door and leaned down to the crack. "GET A LIFE!" She pushed open the door. Hermione, Harry, Fred, George, Ron, Charlie, Bill, and Fluer Delacour, Bill's wife, were rubbing their ears furiously. All of them holding onto flesh colored pieces of strings._

"Honestly, Gin." Fred said grumpily. 

"What are you using them for, anyway? You could here everything she was saying."

"We wanted to hear you." George said. "So Harry?" Harry blushed.

"I'm not pregnant!" Ginny finally sighed. "Flower over there is, however." 

"How did you…? We weren't going to tell, yet." Bill sputtered. "With You- Know- Who in power as he is, we thought we should lie low…"

"Four months in, about? Your disillusionment charms are shit." She snapped and everyone watched in surprise as Ginny walked up to her room, stroking her own stomach and singing a quiet lullaby. She pulled out a few of her more attractive and fashionable, now, maternity clothes. She pulled them on, and watched the sagging folds of cloth conceal her middle, when they had so proudly displayed it before. The pants drooped and dropped off around a moment later. There was a knock on the door and she fumbled with the clothes and threw them in the trunk where she kept all her stuff of the past. She shut it quickly and pulled on her bathrobe just as Hermione opened the door. 

"What has gotten into you, Ginny?" She said through gritted teeth. "We all noticed. But you wait for people to tell you things like that. You've been acting so oddly. You can tell me what's the matter. You've always been able to come to me," She opened her arms and Ginny, not wanting to appear again rude gave her a long hug. 

"I can't tell you this, Hermione." She told her softly. "I can't tell anyone."

"You're not pregnant, are you?" Hermione looked suddenly thunderstruck.

"No. No, I don't suppose I could handle that at this point." Ginny said absent-mindedly. 

"Why are you so sad?" Hermione whispered. "I can feel it around you." Tears were filling her eyes, Ginny stepped back, alarmed. "I think everyone thinks you're on your monthly or something. But I can feel this… misery radiating from you." 

"I- I don't know what you're…"

"Ginny, what happened in the kitchen?"

                                *                                              *                                              *

                She was making peace with Fluer, who sat on the counter working her way through an enormous pot of chocolate mousse. "I've craved chocolate since Day 1." She sighed miserably. "Eet goes straight to my hips." She swallowed a large spoonful. 

                "You're just out of the woods on morning sickness, though." Fluer nodded and shook her head.

                "I do not understand how some women can say zat zey love being pregnant. I've had such a miserable time of eet. Every ailment ez mine." She pressed a hand between her breasts and sighed. 

                "All it looks like is you're hiding more chocolate under your robes. You're going to be one of those women who, by the end of it, looks completely normal except for the basketball protruding from her robes. Do you have any good maternity robes yet?"

                "Not yet. I have been waiting. We weren't going to tell anybody…" Ginny felt a twinge of guilt.

                "I really am sorry about that. I've just been in such a bad mood. Now, Madam Malkin's sells shit for maternity robes. Awful, all of them. Now Robes. That's the place that sells the best." Ginny hoped to god that they were still open. "At a reasonable price, too." 

                "I know ze place! And I did notice zat ze Madam Malkin was not selling attractive robes." 

                "They're so unflattering. You'd probably be better off with a potato sack." Ginny snorted.

                "I know!" Fluer laughed as well. Suddenly she stopped. "How do you know all of zis?" 

                "My mum you know, all those kids." Ginny muttered.

                "You were ze last." She said suspiciously. 

                "Never mind. Just forget about it. I'm sorry about revealing your big secret. Savvy?" 

                "No… no.  I know nozing about zees." She gestured to her stomach. "I won't tell, but tell me everyzing you know. I need to know. I don't know about diet or anyzing. I want to take care of zis baby. Of my child." Fluer sounded so much like Ginny, pleading to the female professors that it made Ginny pause. "Savvy?" Fluer shrugged, and Ginny realized she didn't know what it meant. 

                "Savvy." She said. "Well, Rule number 1…"

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                She stared, deadened, out the window.  She had been back almost a month. She had seen Oliver twice. In Diagon Alley, shopping with Odessa. He had greeted her fondly and Odessa had been sweet, if not distant. Ginny wondered why. Had they perhaps talked about  her? No. He had been gone an afternoon, not a year. She didn't know. Ginny yanked on the chain of her necklace. The second time had been more painful. Working in the Leaky Cauldron was comforting and it kept her busy. She often stayed the night, or at least for dinner. Fawkes drifted lazily into her lap and she stroked his feathers. "I wish your tears could heal a broken heart, Fawkes." She whispered. "I wish your tears could bring back my husband and my daughter. Luna." She whispered it breathlessly.  "I feel as if my soul has shattered and lodged every memory in the organ of my imagination like glass." 

                He had come in the day she had officially called it quits with Harry. Just a week ago. It seemed longer than that. He ordered a Fizzy Pumpkin Juice, shook his head and ordered a beaker of Ogden's. She had smiled at him and served it up. She waved away the money he presented her. She could tell Tom was watching them. She hoped he didn't mind. "Its alright. I do it all the time. Sometime I just mix pumpkin concentrate with carbonated water. It tastes almost exact if you squeeze about a lemon's worth of juice into it." She wiped around his glass and the little pitcher. 

                "Ginny." He said softly. She ignored him and went to take another woman's order, handing it over to her and smiling wider. "Gin. Please." He said a little louder. She continued to ignore him. By the time she turned to him he was practically bellowing her name every thirty seconds. 

                "Please sir, if you can't keep your voice down, you'll have to exit the premises." She said tersely. She didn't know why she was doing it, she was suddenly angry. He grabbed onto her arm and leaned forward as she made to walk away. She forced her face to remain impassive as she turned to look at him. 

                "I…"

                "I broke up with Harry." Ginny suddenly interrupted. 

                "We were both supposed to stay as normal as possible." He said unhappily. 

                "Yeah, well, you were always stronger than me." She said. "My heart isn't in the future anymore. Certainly not with Harry Potter. Have you ever had a dream come true and realize it was always a nightmare?" She snapped. 

                "Everyday I wake up and the woman in my arms isn't one that I love."

                "You and Odessa are perfect for each other." Ginny meant it, but she hated Odessa at that moment. She felt she might kill Odessa if Oliver didn't argue.

                "Just because we're good looking? Or because we play Quidditch? Or because we're famous? I'd be better off dating Viktor Krum." He hissed. * Oh, I love you Oliver, I love you *

                "Viktor Krum isn't good looking." *God Ginny, what that the best you could come up with? Come on girl, pull it together. Convince him not to marry her. I love him. * Oliver sighed and shook his head. "Sorry." She put her head in her hands. 

                "S'alright." He drained his whiskey and winced. "I think you're starting to rub off on me." He stood and offered money one last time. Ginny didn't take it. He started towards the door. She told herself to call after him. Tell him she loved him. Tell him she wanted to wake up next to him every day for the rest of her life. That they could use the Death Spinner to get Luna and live happily in the future. 

                "Did you ask her?" It didn't work. He turned and blushed. 

                "Yeah, yeah I did." He brushed his eyes and walked away. The bell tinkled quietly. Tom came behind her and set a hand on her shoulder. 

                "He did just what you told him to do." He whispered, ignoring the orders. 

                "He never listened to me before. I was hoping this time wouldn't be any different."

                Ginny buried her head in her hands as Fawkes swooped through the window. She was so alone. 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Week four. Her month anniversary in hell. She was starting to hate her family. No, she would always love them. But she was starting to hate them for the fact that they didn't remember the seventies. That they didn't trust her. That every time she was angry it was 'that time of the month'. They were started to hate her, too. For being moody and unpredictable. For the cutting the boy- who- lived off the family reunion roster. For not telling them everything that was wrong. When she wasn't working she went up to her room and stared out the window. She didn't eat. She barely slept, unless she was at the Leaky Cauldron. Her mother, Hermione, her brothers, her father, even Harry, came up and tried to talk to her. But she remained motionless, staring out the window. "You're going to kill yourself. Just eat something. Please." They coaxed and coddled and she never met their eyes. They remained constantly fixed outside. 

                Finally, one day, three visitors came that made her turn around. She was sitting, stroking Fawkes as he sang to her softly. She would miss him when she sent him back. She didn't know why she could just do it. *Great. Another thing to miss from the past.* She cried and wiped her eyes. The door creaked open. She didn't glance around. "Hey Gin." It was a voice she recognized but couldn't immediately place. It was soft, but she got the feeling it wasn't usually that way. It took her a moment as she tuned out the words and studied the tone and inflection. 

                "Tonks." Her voice sounded hollow and hoarse. She hadn't used it all week. She hadn't worked all week. She had owled to Tom and said that she wanted to spend it with her family. She didn't want to move. 

                "Gin. When was the last time you showered? When did you last eat?" That was Remus, no doubt about it. "Ginny please. Talk to me. Remember me? I miss the past, too." She slowly rotated, she shoulders cracking with the effort. Dumbledore was there too. Remus and Tonks gasped, Dumbledore merely raised his eyebrows and x-rayed her. 

                "I don't want any company." She turned back around. 

                "Well, that's the most she's talked all week." She hadn't noticed her mother. 

                "When did she last eat, Molly? She looks emaciated." 

                "She had a decent breakfast on Monday. Not since then." Remus sighed and she could hear the breath he released before he would cry. 

                "Tuesday was your month anniversary, wasn't it?" He said through gritted teeth.

                "Month, what?" 

                "Molly, would you leave us?" Dumbledore spoke for the first time. The door closed and she heard Dumbledore put an imperturbable charm on the room. 

                "You haven't eaten in four days?" Tonks suddenly burst out. "It's Friday, Gin!"

                "Ah." She croaked. Fawkes soared out the open window. She let him go. 

                "You've still got him?" Dumbledore whispered. "You've still got the Death Spinner?" 

                "I'm not going to commit murder." 

                "Or suicide?" That was Remus.

                "I can't even stand up at this point." She admitted. Hot tears coarsed down her cheeks, burning her tear ducts and eyes. 

                "To go to the bathroom?" Tonks sounded curious. 

                "I haven't really needed to." She admitted this also, with guilt. It hurt to talk. 

                "Have you been drinking?" Dumbledore. 

                "From my wand." She let her arm flop aside to show where she had the stick of wood cradled. 

                "You should be dead." Tonks said with awe.

                "I wish I was." She said hollowly. And she wouldn't talk to them anymore. Her voice scratched, it hurt. She didn't want to see them. They didn't understand. They left and they had dinner downstairs. She heard them. Tonks came up later. 

                "So, you're not using your bed. I will. See you in the morning. Please, just take care of yourself Ginny. You'd be in the last person in the world I'd want to lose. Well, at least second to last. Or maybe… well never mind. That obviously doesn't help. Just, take care." She flopped down on the pillows. Ginny waited four hours, before her head dropped forward against the glass and she slept. 

She sat in a hospital bed, sleeping. It was her, but she was in someone else's eyes. Someone else's head and body. And she felt strong emotions in her. Love and remorse. Pity and protectiveness. She stood and walked purposefully somewhere. She saw a reflection for a moment in the glass before her forehead touched against the coolness of it. There was Luna, oh Luna, beautiful Luna. There was love there, too. And wanting. She wanted to hold the baby in her arms. She wanted the baby as her own. She wanted Ginny as her own. She paced back to the room and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. Please, live Ginny. Please be alright. You always say you're fine. I know you're not. What happens when one day you fall, one day you admit it, and I'm not there to hold you and love you.  There was James at the door. She took him into a brotherly embrace. She looked back once at him stroking her hand. She loved James. Not her. Not me. 

She woke up with a start. There were twinges of grey about the horizon. She had slept longer than in the whole week. She looked around and then flopped to the ground. It hurt. And she wasn't going to even try to walk. Tonks sighed in her seep. Ginny bit her wand between her teeth and crawled desperately towards the door, flopping down occasionally to breath and recuperate. This used to take you 30 seconds she scolded herself. You never used to refuse food.  She got to the stairs and sighed. There was no other way to do this. She winced as she leaned over and let herself flop like a rag doll, all the way down. She pulled herself to the kitchen and managed to grab an orange from a basket on the counter. 

It was like ambrosia. She ate it greedily, not realizing how hungry she had been. She let the juices run out of her mouth and into her hair. She finished and licked her lips. Ginny went to sleep for the second time that night.

                                *                                              *                                              *    

"No, Molly. Another snack tonight. Three snacks tomorrow. One meal the day after that. Two meals and then three meals. These things have to be taken in steps. Small steps." Dumbledore waved away the teeming plate of food that her mother was presenting. Remus had discovered her on the floor and helped her clean up a little before carrying her back up to the window seat. He woke Tonks with good news. Ginny was still weak, and she hadn't seen any other member of her family but her mother. It was around noon and she was again staring out the window. Dumbledore, luckily, didn't see it as a step back and they talked quietly to her back. She was given a glass of water every half hour and instructed to finish it before the next one came up. Tonks and Remus were playing a game of Exploding Snap. 

"How you feeling, Gin? You want anything? How bout we go climb Mount Everest." Tonks joked. "You certainly look up to it." 

"Thank you, no." Ginny said dryly. She sat for a while longer and then voiced what she hadn't been able to say in a long time, and probably wouldn't be able to say again. 

"I really am an awful mother." There was no answer. "I want to see Luna. Please?" She turned around and looked at them. "Please, may I? I'll take a shower." She gulped down her water. "I want to." 

"I think so." Dumbledore said softly. 

"Today?" Ginny leaned forward and fell slightly over, grabbing onto his hands. "Today, Albus?" Fawkes flew slightly forward and she grabbed onto his tail feathers as he helped steady her. "I'll do whatever you want, if I can go today." 

"Tonks. Go help her shower." Dumbledore waved her away, exasperated. "She'll need to keep up her strength when we go see Miss Lovegood." Ginny, for once, restrained herself from crying and instead whooped with joy. 

Tonks helped her up a few flights of stairs and into her parents bedroom, instead of the kids bathroom, as she usually used. It was a big stall shower. One you couldn't take a bath in. "Here's your practice standing."

"Thank you, Tonks. Thank you." Tonks pulled off her robes, wearing only shorts and a tank top with legend, 'HEX', a fairly famous wizarding punk band. 

"Another day and you would've had to be moved to St. Mungos." Was all Tonks would say.

"My parents wouldn't do that. They like to keep these type of things quiet." Ginny unashamedly  stripped down as Tonks led her into the stall. Tonks even helped her soap up a little.

"You have too little faith in your family. All they want is what's best with you. They just don't know how to do that right now." Tonks laughed as she helped Ginny spin around to wash off, bending down to hand her the shampoo. "We're fulfilling every male's fantasy out here."

"Not so." Ginny said as Tonks worked the soap through her hair.

"And why not?" Tonks helped her turn around and wash it out. 

"You're clothed." Tonks laughed again. Ginny gulped in the steamy air and let Tonks direct her around the shower and get clean. Tonks wrapped her in a towel and left to go get her a brush and tooth brush and such. Ginny sat against a wall and watched as she wiggled her toes. She was going to see Luna. Tonks returned shortly and helped Ginny to do everything. 

"Brush. Spit. Wash. Spit." Tonks directed, looking over her shoulder as she dragged a brush through Ginny's hair. "You like it this style?" She plucked through the feathery strands. Luckily, Ginny's hair hadn't gotten but an inch longer and maintained the style she kept it at home. She ultimately preferred it this way she decided. 

"Would you style it for me?" She asked sleepily. " I don't think I can."

"I can try. I usually don't have to do my own. But I'm a woman, aren't I?" Ginny watched warily as Tonks clutched her wand purposefully and waved it. Let's see if we can't…" Ginny closed her eyes tight. She had forgotten about Tonks sometimes mediocre magical abilities. She would style her hair, but it might not turn out so well for Ginny.  "FLAMBAGO!" Ginny opened her eyes. She looked good.

"That's the spell for hair styling?" Tonks nodded proudly. "Jeez." 

"It's the only one I know." Tonks squeezed her shoulders. "Ready to go? Albus said we can head out whenever you want." Ginny took a last minute look in the mirror.

"Okay, I'm ready to go see my daughter."

                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny recognized the house she had dropped Luna in all those years ago. A crup slept in a patch of sunlight and Darren Lovegood who, she hadn't realized before, she had gone to school with. He was a few years under her however. He looked at her oddly. She wondered if he remembered her from school. "We're here to see, Luna." She whispered. He looked over the crowd of four on his door stoop and opened the door with a smile. 

                "Welcome to ye." They all filed in. "Luna's had so many visitors this summer. Usually she don't have any." He said sadly. Ginny bit her lip, if any kid's made fun of Luna this year, she would deck 'em. The walls were covered in articles and political cartoons. She recognized what was probably every issue of the Quibbler and other wizarding tabloid in the world. The Japanese Minister of Magic from what had to be fifty years ago jeered at her from an article written in the aforementioned's language. To have grown up here. Ginny sighed. Luna had had a happy childhood. She hadn't known. Ginny would know for the rest of her life. Darren went to sit at a desk. "Follow that hallway to the end and go out the screen door. Luna and her friend are in the back." They did as he told them. Ginny held on to Tonks tightly. She was losing strength again. She clutched her bag of cheerios and carrot sticks that she had been given by her mother. She felt like a toddler. She had wanted to ask where her sippy cup was, but knew that Mum was just trying to be nice. She stopped halfway down and had a few sticks of carrot before continuing on. They pushed the screen door open and all walked out before it banged close. Luna looked up at the slap of the door. Ginny caught a look of two green eyes before they hid again. Ginny wasn't fooled. His face wasn't the only thing that gave him away.  

                "Harry? What are you doing here?" The two were stretched out on a blanket with lunch and books laid out around them. It looked like Luna was quizzing Harry between handfuls of crisps. She looked so much like Oliver. *I was right, though. Those are my eyes.* Harry blushed.

                "Studying." He said obviously. Luna stood and looked around at the people who had just arrived with her large misty eyes. 

                "Harry told me you haven't been well. Moffet Malaria is going around right now. You should read the latest Quibbler for a cure. St. Mungos… well." She raised her eyebrows to tell them exactly what she thought of St. Mungos. Ginny reached forward and hugged her. 

                "I'll check it out." She said breathlessly. She held a confused Luna at arm's length. "How's your summer been?" 

                "Good. Dad's been letting me help him with the paper. I've had about a hundred visitors. Oliver Wood, you know the bloke who plays Quidditch and is dating that famous Odessa Sprout, she's actually a member of Italian Mafia, came to see me. I met Harry down Diagon a week or two ago and he's been over almost every day." That explained a lot. As the others went over to Harry, Luna leaned into Ginny as they flopped down on a pair of peeling lawn chairs. All the mistiness disappeared from her eyes and she looked like a normal teenage girl, in denim shorts and an oversized 'Save the Crumple-Horned Snorkack' T-shirt. "I think he maybe fancies me." She sighed and leaned back. "That's never happened before." She suddenly narrowed her eyes at Ginny. "You were dating him, weren't you?" 

                "Not anymore." Ginny said earnestly. She liked this turn of events very much. 

                "Why? What's wrong with him?" Ginny didn't answer for a moment. They watched as Tonks tried Harry's hair, and then Dumbledore's, she stroked her long beard as the others  laughed. "Because you know that Fudge…"

                "There's nothing wrong with him." Harry looked as though he was trying to change. It got raucous laughter. "You don't look very much like your parents. Do you?" She wanted Luna to say something. 

                "No. I don't suppose I do. It's because I was abandoned." She sounded misty again. 

                "So they aren't… er… weren't your real parents?" Ginny tried to sound surprised.

                "Of course they're my real parents." Luna whispered. "Love's thicker than blood." 

A/N. Hope everybody likes it. Review, please! 


	6. Wedding and Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything else. I do own the plot and anything you don't recognize.

A/N. So I realized in chapter 3, I think, there was the poem at the end of the chapter and I didn't say that it was written by Robert Frost. So, just so I don't get in trouble, Oliver's Poem is Robert Frost's Bond and Free. 

                It came on the eve of her two month anniversary to the return of the Burrow. She was upstairs reading a romance novel and singing to Fawkes when her mother called her downstairs. Setting down 'Wishing for a Warlock,' she ran down the stairs. Fawkes clung to her shoulder. Molly gave Fawkes a long look. "Certainly you can't keep him forever. Dumbledore must want him back sometime." 

                "A little longer." Ginny whispered, kissing Fawkes on the beak. "What did you want, Mum?" 

                "You've just had an owl. It looks like a card or something." She took the heavy parchment with the silver wax inscribed artfully along the edges. Her heart sank when she saw Oliver's handwriting spelling out her name. She flipped it over, on the opening bill were the words, '_you're invited_' in the same silver wax. She slid out the beautiful invitation. Her mother gasped. Violet, the same heavy parchment, in the same silver wax. _The Marital Unionship of Oliver G. Wood and Odessa A. Sprout. The G. stood for Garrett. How Oliver hated his middle name. On the inside was pink tissue with dates and times written across it in shiny violet ink. Ginny wanted to rip it apart and throw it in the fire, watch those beautiful wax designs bubble and disappear, let those words curl in the sweet furnace. She handed it to her mother instead, who looked over it avidly. _

                "Oh, Fawkes." She whispered. "What am I to do?" He whispered a note to her and her heart lifted. 

                "Oh, Ginny, darling! Who will you take?" She handed back the invitation and held her hands to her heart. "You should take Harry. Oh he's dating that girl…" She looked disappointed. 

                "Luna Lovegood." She said firmly. "I want to take Luna Lovegood."

                "She's already been invited." Harry said from the doorway. They both whirled around to look at him. "And I have, too. I'm going to take her. Oliver invited Charlie and the twins and Angelina, Katie, and Alicia, too. That's probably why he invited you, you're on the Gryffindor Quidditch team." 

                "Oh." She sighed. That was convenient. "Are Ron and Hermione going?" 

                "Yeah."

                "I wonder why he invited Luna?" She said, knowing why. 

                "Oh. I don't know." He muttered. She shrugged. Molly left with a significant look to both of them. Harry and Ginny rolled their eyes at each other as Harry came to sit beside her on the couch, yawning. She moved Fawkes into her lap and she stroked his feathers.

                "So whose everyone taking?" She asked. "You seem to be on top of things."

                "You would be too, if you would come out of your room except to go to the bathroom or run." He accused. She blushed. 

                "Look…"

                "I know. I know. I'm taking Luna…" He started off on his fingers.

"How is Luna?" She asked.

"Odd." He said with a laugh. "Beautiful and odd. I finally kissed her."

"Just the way you like her."

"Yeah."

"I wouldn't have her any other way." Harry gave her an odd look before continuing.

 "Hermione's taking Ron. She wouldn't let you say it any other way." Ginny chuckled. "Charlie's taking Tonks." He raised his eyebrows suggestively. He reminded her of James so much. 

                "When did that happen?" Ginny gasped. Tonks hadn't mentioned. 

                "I told you you spend too much time in your room. They moved in together last week." Ginny smiled at Fawkes who cooed, feeling her stress. 

                "I'll have to get out more. I have dress robes to buy."

                "Do you need money?" Harry asked innocently. She gave him a sharp look which quickly softened. He didn't mean anything by it. 

                "I've been saving up for awhile. Might as well spend it on this." She weighed the invitation in her hand and threw it on an ottoman. 

                "Fred's taking Angelina. Katie said something about Percy. Never saw that coming. He had been living with Penelope in London all those years. I think she said they're just going as friends because he wants to look good or something. Surprise, surprise. Alicia is taking Roger Davies."

                "That himbo?" Ginny shook her head and smiled slightly. "Good luck to her. And George?" 

                "George is taking Lee." Harry said quietly. 

                "Couldn't find a date?" She said, smiling about her sweet older brother.

                "Oh, he found one." Harry raised an eyebrow.

                "But… oh. OH!" Harry quieted her with his hands. "Have I really been in my room _that long?" _

                "I shouldn't know, but for walking in the right room at the wrong time. You won't tell, will you? I knew you wouldn't snitch or be disgusted or anything." She nodded and did a little dance in her seat. 

                "I had no idea." She covered her face with her hands. "You don't find it…"

                "I above all people know that intolerance is ignorance." Ginny cupped Harry's face and smiled. She kissed him on the forehead. 

                "You do, don't you?" 

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                They were walking up the stairs around 3 a.m. when Harry stopped her at her door. "So you heard what I said about intolerance and everything?" 

                "Yeah." She let Fawkes fly in before her and was surprised when Harry put his arm in front of the door. "Harry, I heard you."

                "Is there anything you want to tell me?" She looked at him a moment, confused, before it dawned on her. 

                "You think I'm gay!" She slapped a hand to her forehead. "Because of Luna…" 

                "Are you?" He asked. "Are you? I don't want to push or anything, but since you're in love with my girlfriend, I feel I'm entitled."

                "In love with Luna Lovegood. Oh god, that would the day. Look Harry, she's… something happened and uh… Luna Lovegood was born Luna uh..." Harry shook his head. She opened the door. "Come in. There's something you should know, that you can't tell a soul, or it's your head." She motioned him in furiously. He went in and she shut the door. Harry slumped down in an armchair and she flopped onto her bed. "So you probably didn't notice that day, that Oliver came over, that when I came out of the kitchen, after making lunch, that I looked a little different."

                "You were acting different." He said, shrugging. He obviously thought 15 minutes weren't enough to turn someone gay and depressed. 

                "Oh, god. This is hard. You really can't tell anyone. Really."

                "Okay, okay." He held out his wands. "Binding Bill." She touched her wand to his. "I will reveal nothing Ginny tells me in this room unless she reveals it herself in which case I am exempt. Tumos." He said. Ginny blinked. That was committed.  

                "I- we that is. We went back in time." Harry blinked. "To the 70's." Blink. "We got married the second month we were there."

                "What? You're married?" He yelled. She motioned for him to be quiet. She put an silencing spell on the room. "You're married?" He whispered. 

                "We never got divorced, but we were going under different names of course. Oliver and Ginny Wesley. This is Oliver's wedding ring." She indicated the one around her neck. She opened her past trunk and pulled out a stack of photos, handing him the wedding pictures. He looked through them silently. She guessed he didn't see his dad or the other Marauders in the pictures from the reception. "I worked at the Leaky Cauldron for two months and he worked at the Ministry of Magic. He saw Dad around occasionally. We met Bill, and Charlie and Mum, too." Harry simply listened. She sorted out the pictures taken from their apartment and handed those to Harry, too. 

                "Dumbledore was in some kind of a trial and… and he was unreachable until the Hogwarts term. So we had to wait. And then we rode the Hogwarts Express. I got in a fight with your mum over your dad." 

                "You've met my parents." He said breathlessly.

                "Your dad was one of my best friends." She sniffed and held back tears. "Anyway, we met with Dumbledore and he said we needed a Death Spinner to get back. He said it could take a few months to get one. So we had to wait again. Albus is such a dear man. I really do love him. I do. I went into fifth year with them to get my O.W.L.s. I was already pretty good friends with your dad. With the Marauders. I was probably best friends with Remus though."

                "Wormtail, too?"

                "Wormtail too. He was a good kid. He really was. How would he have gotten in with the Marauders otherwise?" She smiled and handed him the rest of the pictures. He quietly began to cry. 

                "I saw him in a memory and it looked like they were just humoring him. Like they didn't really like him and he was clapping and making an idiot out of himself and such."

                "He always was a bit of an idiot. But he was sweet."

                "What were they all like?" He wiped a tear away from a picture. She bent to see. It was a picture of her and James. She was on his back in the lake. He threw her in the lake and she jumped onto him to dunk him. It didn't work. It never did. 

                "Your dad. He was kind of an arrogant guy. Quite an ass, honestly. But he was funny and he was good. He was always a good person. Always. He hated the dark arts. Hated them."

                "Why weren't you in that memory?" Harry asked suddenly. 

                "I'll tell you about that later." She said. "Sirius was a ladies man. Through and through. He was sweet and charming. And an ass sometimes as well. Oliver didn't get along with the Marauders, either. He got so jealous. Wormtail was sweet and loving. Oh, Peter. Its a shame about Peter. A real shame. Remus was always so soft. When we wrestled, he would let me win. Even though I could against him. We snuck down to the kitchens together. We had such great times. I always had a bit of a crush on James though, truth be told. He and Evans didn't get together at all."

                "Were you and my mum friends?" Ginny bit her lip. She shook her head and blushed. "I hated her." She put her head in her hands. "Hated her." She moaned. "I turned her into a boy once."

                "You did what?" He shouted and puffed out his chest. 

                "Ss." She made an annoyed noise and motioned for him to quiet down. "I was a member of the Marauders. It was a prank. It was a brilliant prank. I don't remember who came up with that one. It might have been Peter, or even Sirius. And we would bet, too. On how long it would take for them to put the blame on us. Sirius always won. I lost five galleons a month to that boy. You want to see me transform. I don't get to show anyone anymore. And the Marauders lost interest cause they could all do it, too." 

                "Sure." He smiled. She changed and ruffled her feathers. He laughed out loud. She turned back. 

                "You're laughing at me, Mr. Potter." 

                "You're funny looking." He gasped.  

                "Thanks a lot." She smiled. "We stayed there a little over a year. But most of the year, I didn't look like that. That's just from the first couple months of school. When I first arrived and a few from just before I left."

                "No?" He held up a picture suddenly. "What would your mother think of you looking like this, even for a couple of months?" 

                "I don't know. You can't tell her." Oliver had taken that picture of her wearing her robe, with her hair piled on top of her head leaning suggestively into the doorframe. It didn't move. She pulled out a huge 

pile of pictures. Harry whistled. Ginny looked quickly through them and pulled out most of them throwing those back into the trunk. "You don't need to see all of these to get the idea."  She handed him the little stack and took back the others.

                "You. You're pregnant!" 

                "I was pregnant. Did Sirius ever mention he had another godchild?" 

                "Who… Luna?" He held up a few of the baby pictures. "This is Luna? Luna Lovegood, with Oliver Wood." 

                "Luna Wesley. With her father." She gulped. "She's named after Remus. He came up with it himself. Called himself my favorite. Oh, he probably was. But the others. They were so dear to me. And Tom from the Leaky Cauldron, and Dumbledore, they were like fathers to me. I had a whole life, a whole family in the past. You can't understand what it's like to be in one time and want to be back in the other. Knowing that you never closed all those doors that were open to you." She broke down, for the first time in almost a week. A new record. "Luna said something to me. Love's thicker than blood. I love both my families. How do I choose?" 

                "I don't know. But damn. This explains a lot. I wish I could've gone back with you."

                "No you don't. It was wonderful, but you don't. Believe me." They were silent for a long time. Harry looked through the photographs and her clothes. Ginny stroked Fawkes. She turned her back to him. 

                "So who do you think you're going to take to the wedding?" Harry finally asked. 

                "Myself, naturally." He didn't answer. Her back suddenly prickled and grew warm. The room was bright blue and then it faded. Ginny whirled around. She searched fiercely through her trunk and kicked the side of her bed, cursing. 

                Harry was gone, and so was the Death Spinner.

                                                *                                              *                                              *  

                She grabbed onto Fawkes' tail feathers. "Take me to him. Please." Fawkes understood. She felt her whole body be consumed with heat, with fire, and they disappeared. He dropped into her arms and she cuddled him, as they landed an a wooded area Ginny didn't precisely know. She saw Harry peering in a huge gap in a set of shrubbery. She went beside him and snatched the Death Spinner from his hands. He glanced at her before going straight back to looking in the gap. She was curious and looked too. There were the Marauders on the porch, in lawn chairs. Lily was there, too. A very pregnant Lily.

                "… the twins are almost one? And she's already to have another?" Lily was saying. "Is the wife picking 'em up? It's not like her to be late." She was asking Sirius, tersely. Harry gasped, apparently this was something that Sirius didn't mention. 

                "And it just dogs you doesn't it? Since you're always late." He said. "And you look like you're smuggling a one-year-old under that shirt. Kid's all hands. That'll be a seeker it will."

                "Look who Oscar's got for a father." Lily leaned over and kissed James firmly. 

                "Alright you two." Remus said tiredly. He and Sirius exchanged a look and Ginny was surprised to see the pair narrow their eyes at each other. What had created a rift between those two? Peter was looking through a scroll of parchment and he finished it and scratched his eyes. 

                "Okay, guys. They want us to do, what?" Everyone groaned. 

                "Didn't you just read the bloody memo?" Lily snapped. "Idiot."

                "Lils. Please." Sirius said through gritted teeth. "We've told you time and time again." 

                "Peter is as much a member of the order as everyone else and he deserves to have things explained to him when he doesn't understand just like you do." Lily finished. "And I know I don't understand most things, so I'm sorry. Sorry, W.T."

                "All is forgiven." He bowed gallantly and he stood up and walked over to the hedge. Ginny scooted forward against it and prayed quietly to the Goddess and Merlin. He lit a cigarette. Ginny sighed. So he didn't give it up. As if he had heard this he smiled. "Wonder what old Stormy would say to this?" She bumped Harry and indicated to herself. He nodded as if he understood.

                "I can tell you what I think. I've given up smoking for this baby, Harry or Maude." She looked meaningfully at James who groaned. 

                "Don't start, Lily." She scowled at him. "I don't want to fight about names." 

                "And, after giving this up, for Harry or Maude, I don't want temptation from you." She stuck out her tongue at James, smoking clearly was no longer the issue. Ginny sighed again, she remembered why she didn't like Evans. She was so stereotypically female. There was a noise from the front and two little adorable girls toddled out. Sirius caught them in his arms. 

                "Such quick learners." He whistled as he whirled them around. "Walking and talking so young."

                "They're geniuses. But of course. Let those two brats run around with their uncles. I need your help Padfoot." Said an agonizingly familiar voice from the front.

                "And aunt." Lily called obstinately. 

                "I wish it wasn't so." The voice said. 

                "Oi. The two knocked up red-heads." Sirius muttered. He literally tossed one of the giggling girls to Wormtail, who caught her expertly, this was apparently a regular sport. James caught the other. 

                "And don't throw them!" Sirius rolled his eyes and went inside. Ginny pulled herself away with difficulty. She wanted to go smack Lily and that woman in the kitchen, too. It was probably that tramp, Pepper. The only red-head she could think of. They were hers first. 

                "Harry." She whispered. "We shouldn't be here. I get the feeling we should go." She grabbed his hand, grubby from tearing at the grass and dirt. She grabbed onto Fawkes, who had been picking at the ground. "Take us to the future, please." She whispered. They left a crackling smudge of magic for a few moments as they disappeared through the gates of time. It had a shocking effect on the Marauders, who pushed the children and Lily inside and took out their wands. Peter finally set down his wand. 

                "I don't think it was anything." He finally said. He gulped and pulled nervously at his clothes. A woman with red hair and blonde streaks waddled beside him. He stepped protectively in front of her. She walked around the edge of the hedge and managed to squat down. 

                "What do you see?" Peter asked. She looked at him with pain in her eyes. Oh Peter, even now? 

                "Someone. Two someones as it is, were here in the grass. It looks as though they might have an owl with them, I don't know." She feigned. She did know. 

                "Spying, d'you think?" Wormtail gasped. She snorted.

                "Spies would sit in the grass and stare through a gap in the hedge? More like grab a patio chair and sit down for a chat at wand point. Voldemort isn't subtle, Wormy." She said dryly. 

                "Don't say…" He whispered. 

                "Don't give in to the fear." She whispered, as he helped her up. "We can't let him control our lives, even when people are starting to go into hiding. Especially now that Evans and I are roughly the size of freight trains. What kind of children would we have been, if we didn't grow up in happiness? If we didn't play and we had to worry about things that we were too young to worry about? Oh, Wormtail. We need to get you a woman. Help you learn to appreciate things more." 

                "That's enough of that. And James wants you to call her Lily." 

                "And she wants to call their first child Maude Jane or Harry James. Can't I hate her for that?"

                "I hardly think James Jr. and Patricia Serendipity are any better." Ginny winced and shook her head. 

                "Patricia isn't bad, but Serendipity? Oh, Prongs." She shook her head at the heavens. 

                "But you still think that Lily will win and it will be a boy?" He shook his head. "You've got no chance. It has got to be a girl." He told her. "I don't know why you even put your hundred galleons in." 

                "So I can get 300 galleons from you schmooses." She snapped. "You'll see. Evans fit to burst and she's got James wrapped around her little finger." They took their seats in the patio chairs. 

                "And you're still maintaining July 31st as the birthday? Another 20 galleons against you. That's still another month away, practically. It's only July 4th."

                "You watch. By the end of this, I'll have 400 extra galleons to put in my bank account."

                "Not like you need it!" She opened a Fizzy Pumpkin Juice and rubbed a hand down her stomach, ignoring Peter. 

                "I've always wanted one of my children to look like me. This one's it."

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                The house bustled furiously on the day of the wedding. Everyone was at the Burrow, getting fixed up. The showers were cold, the hair styling charms weren't working and Tonks announced at the last minute she couldn't find her dress robes. She had just gone flying over the couch after one of her classic spills and Molly was yelling at her to get changed. "Well, it would help if I could find the damn things!" She was wearing her hair blonde and long and curly and it was getting in her face. Ginny led her upstairs, she had yet to change because she was working so hard at getting everyone else ready. She had just helped Luna into lilac dress robes and tied her hair up in a stylish knot. She was humming and sucking down gilly water from a bottle dreamily. Ginny had finally managed to get make-up on her daughter and she looked beautiful. She had on matching pumps, but Ginny didn't know whether they would last.

                "You want to go retro? I've got some dress robes circa, 1974." She produced them and Tonks laughed joyously. 

                "Oh, I totally want those!" She grabbed them and danced around. Ginny helped her pull them on, and since she was a little bigger than Tonks, she helped her tighten and loosen things in all the right places. She put make-up on Tonks, who screwed up her face unhappily, until she got a look at herself in the mirror. "I'm beautiful." She sounded disbelieving. Ginny laughed. 

                "You'll pass." She smoothed the dress robes on Tonks. She did look beautiful. 

                "My hair's wrong." She speculated. She changed it to long glossy black and Ginny tied the upper half in a french braid, leaving the rest flowing down her back. "That's right. Oh, Charles!" She bounded out of the room. Hermione came in a moment later, wearing silky gray-blue robes. She was grabbing handfuls of her hair and moaning. 

                "I can't seem to tame it. Will you help me?" She moaned. Ginny grabbed a handful of hair potion and brushed it through with her fingers after Hermione took a seat on a stool from the kitchen. They had gotten a new table that sat very high. 

                "French braided pigtails?"

                "Would you?" Hermione whispered. "And then everybody will be ready and you can get ready, too. Ginny motioned to her jeans and the 1974 sweater that Oliver made her. 

                "You don't like my outfit?" She sprinkled more hair potion into her hand. Hermione laughed. Ginny wound her hair tight, continually adding more hair potion and smoothing it down with even more hair potion when the braid was done. "Alright, braid two. You in too much pain there, Hermione?" 

                "I'm fine." She whispered hoarsely. Ginny laughed. Hermione had a tender head. She finished Hermione's hair in another fifteen minutes and let her look in the mirror. "Ginny?" Hermione looked at her with wide eyes. 

                "Uh huh?" She was smoothing down the bottom where she had tucked the ends of the braids into themselves, making sure no loose hair was showing. 

                "Will you do my make-up? I know I never wear it, and Ron will most likely have a conniption, but this wedding will make it into Witch Weekly. I mean, it's Odessa Sprout.  I want to look good." 

                "You do look good." Ginny whispered but helped her anyway. Luna was still staring off into space, she hadn't said anything in the half hour since Ginny had gotten back up here. She watched silently as Hermione left, and as Ginny changed. 

Ginny smoothed her appearance in the mirror. She looked good in these robes. She knew she did. Okay, dress. She had bought it in Muggle London at one of the designer shops. She was lucky that so many pounds went to a galleon, or she might have cleaned herself out. It dipped shamefully in the front. The man who had helped her mentioned double-sided tape, but she just used magic. It almost went to her belly button. It was a rich cream color, and plain watered silk. It went to her knees, where it widened as long cuts of beige silk feathered away from the tight watered silk base.  Her hair was a little too strong for it, so she softened it with just a dab of blonde hair potion which she ran through with her fingers. She curled her hair slightly and put it in a pile on her head, magically. She let a few curls come down, just to make things interesting. Nude lipstick, light blush, cream eye shadow. Ginny took another look at herself. * Take that, Oliver. * Luna finally spoke. 

"So, what's wrong with Harry?" Ginny turned to her and smiled softly. 

"At this point I think you're more inclined to say than me." She admitted. She kissed Luna on the forehead. "I think you two are perfect for each other. And there's nothing wrong with either of you." 

"Are you gonna wear that ring? It doesn't really go, does it?" Luna pointed to the ring on her neck. 

"I don't suppose it does." She took another long look in the mirror. "That's alright."

                "Ginny! Three thirty! Come downstairs. The wedding begins at 4 and they have the red carpet beginning right now." Ginny quickly pulled on her 30's style pumps. 

                "You go down first." She whispered to Luna. "You'll knock 'em dead." She listened out the door as Luna got exclamations and whistles. She peeked and saw Harry greeting her daughter with his jaw unhinged. 

                "You look beautiful." He whispered, close enough she could hear. Ginny sighed. She was glad she was going without a date, but she remembered how sweet Harry was. 

                "Virginia Weasley!" Her mother called again. Ginny opened the door and started down the stairs. There were gasps. Tonks let out a particularly loud whistle.

                "That's Muggle, that is." She told them. 

                "That's obscene." Charlie whispered. "Ginny, you can't go out like that.  I refuse." 

                "I'm happy for you. Watch how much good it does." She said. "I think I look nice." Molly tipped her chin up and looked her in the eye. 

                "You'll make it in to Witch Weekly you will." She kissed her on the forehead. "Thank god you can all apparate. I don't know what we would do if you had to use Floo."

                "Not go." Katie Bell said, fetching laughter from the others. There were loud  pops and cracks as everyone started disapparating. Ginny appeared beside Harry, who reached over and squeezed her hand. 

                "You do look beautiful." He whispered.

                "Thanks. Now go romance my daughter." He kissed on the cheek and pushed through the crowd to find her. A tired looking witch at the front held up a clipboard. 

                "Okay, so most everybody's here it looks like. Alright, so obviously this has a ridiculous amount of press coverage, because Odessa Sprout is more famous than god. And Oliver Wood hasn't done so badly himself." She shouted. Ginny heard sighs and looked around to see almost everybody rolling their eyes. "Alright then!" The woman shouted. "Just one at a time, step up, tell me your name and I'll find you and the blurb that I'm supposed to say about you. I'll announce your name into this, and then you walk out. Stop in the middle of the red carpet. There's a little white X for all you who don't do this very often. Men pose like this." She put her hands in her pockets and smiled indulgently. "Women pose like this." She put one foot in front of the other and crossed it slightly over the other. She turned at several angles and then waved. "They'll want to see all the angles of the robes and dresses you've brought. Once, you're past the reporters in the middle, you go to the fans and sign autographs. Greet the happy couple, shake hands with both, kiss both on the cheek and walk up to the fellow at the front of the church, tell him your name and spelling and what designer of your robes and shoes. I'll give those a minute, who need to, to check, and we'll get started." Ginny raised her hand.

                "Yes?" The tired looking woman smoothed her curly black hair. 

                "What if we don't have any fans? Should we just walk straight to Oliver and Sprout?" 

                "You have fans. Trust me." The woman said. "Everybody good? Great!" The first couple, came up to the podium, Ginny recognized them as model Calista Peters and her long time lover Draco Malfoy. Both were dressed to the tee. The woman grabbed what looked like an old-fashioned telephone. Her voice was suddenly bright and chipper. "Calista Peters, and Draco Malfoy! Calista is long time model and long time friend of the bride and groom." Ginny remembered Oliver saying he didn't like her very much. "She will be doing a fall shoot to appear in the next Malkin's Magazine. Draco Malfoy flies for the Winbourne Wasps as Seeker and is currently in his second year in the play-offs. Best luck to you Mr. Malfoy." 

"Next up is Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood. We all know Harry's story. He's a good friend of

the groom. They used to play Quidditch together on Gryffindor House team of Hogwarts. Miss Lovegood is a dear friend of the groom's as well. She writes and edits for the Quibbler." Ginny watched all the movie stars, models, and famous Quidditch players of the wizarding world disappear through the doors of the tents. There was still a fairly large crowd, too. "Fred Weasley and Angelina Johnson. Both friends of the groom, both played on the Quidditch team with him. Angelina is currently employed by the Ministry of Magic. Fred is the co-owner of our favorite joke store. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. And here's his brother and twin with partner Lee Jordan. Lee also works for the Ministry of Magic and George is the other half of WWW." It was Ginny's turn, she tucked her wand in a garter around her thigh and walked to the tent doors.

                "Ginny Weasley." She whispered. The woman nodded and took a gulp of water, looking quickly over her list. "Thanks." She plastered a smile on her face and smoothed her clothes. 

                "Ginny Weasley." She walked outside of the tent and almost lost all compusure. About a million pictures were being taken of her. She kept her smile on though and stopped at the white X. She whirled around and waved. The reporters seemed to like it. "Ginny Weasley is a dear, long time friend of the groom. She is currently attending Hogwarts and is chaser on the Gryffindor team. She is joined by… oh never mind." Ginny shrugged and winked to the cameras, giving them another dazzling smile. She knew Oliver was shaking his head as he watched her, even though he was shaking hands with her brother and Lee. She almost walked past the turmoil of prepubescent kids and their frazzled parents and enthusiasts, but they started calling her name and waving pads of paper and pens. She walked to them and signed autograph after autograph, finally she reached the end and, at a request, kissed the cheek of an eager little boy. She walked up to Odessa and Oliver, neither were wearing Union robes. She shook Odessa's hand and kissed her on the cheek. And then looked to Oliver. He took her hand warmly. 

                "You look well." He whispered. "This is my wedding day, you trying to upstage the bride?" 

                "You're a flirt. And you're right. I'm waiting for you to ditch her on the aisle."

                "I just might have to, if you don't change." She kissed him on the cheek. Odessa was currently shaking hands with an older woman with dark red hair spilling across her shoulders. She wore a fashionable pinstripe suit. She winked at Ginny. 

                "I've never found robes quite appropriate for these occasions. Nor men." She kissed Oliver on the cheek and he held onto her hands. Ginny started up the stairs. 

                "You look wonderful old mum." She heard him say. The woman laughed. It sent shivers down Ginny's spine. That was the owner of Gringotts and the editor- in- chief and owner of  Witch Weekly and Warlock Special. The richest woman, no, person, in the entire wizarding world if not the entire world. It had never before occurred to her. She had just been standing next to Virginia Wesley.            

                                                *                                              *                                              *

                Ginny had to admit, it was a beautiful ceremony. Traditional, but beautiful. The Unionship ritual of the wizarding world was so beautiful compared to that of the Muggle world. Odessa wore a beautiful garland of flowers with her Unionship robes, and Oliver carried the traditional sword. Ginny saw that Dumbledore had lent him the Gryffindor sword. She sat between Dumbledore and Gisele Williams, one of the most famous actresses who even starred in Muggle pictures. Halfway through, she handed a handkerchief to the actress who collapsed gratefully on Ginny's shoulders. "Weddings always get me." She blubbered softly. Viktor Krum, her new husband, grabbed onto her arm. 

                "Honey…" He whispered. He looked at her apologetically.

                "Hey." Ginny winked. "You still Hermione's pen-pal?"  

                "Vat? Oh Herm-oh-ninny? Alvays." He winked back at her and let his wife lose all composure over Ginny. 

                Ginny smiled. It was a story. Oliver was making his rounds, dancing with all the women, Odessa dancing with all the men. A few people had asked Ginny, but she was waiting for Oliver. She laughed as he spun a confused Luna around. Someone sat beside her and she glanced over and then did a double-take, Virginia Wesley. "Glass of champagne." She said to a burly bar tender. 

                "You sure you want to do that?" Ginny ventured. She had to be sure. 

                "Weddings are for getting drunk." Tom greeted Ginny and sat farther away from her near Virginia. 

"Hey Da." Virginia said. "You're looking well."

"Yeah, you'll be by on Tuesday?"

"Always." She winked at him. 

"And you'll be in to work." He said sternly to Ginny, as he made to leave. 

"Always." She said. Draco Malfoy took the seat Tom had left. 

"Hey there, Old Spice." He said to Virginia. Ginny watched for a reaction from herself.

"Hey yourself." She said. "Draco, remind me to do a piece on you."

"Yeah? What've you got in mind?" He watched the dance floor and got a sex on the beach for 

himself. "I'm so tired of talking about Quidditch. I never thought I'd say that."

"Why I chose not to become a death eater: an insider's account. Draco Malfoy, the hottest new

celebrity of the Quidditch world, reveals all about the Dark Arts, having his father in jail and

Voldemort in power. And how it lost its appeal." She pitched it flawlessy. He raised an eyebrow

and took a long sip of his drink. 

"Not bad."

"Would you? I'm desperate for a human interest pitch. We just haven't had it since Rita Skeeter retired." Ginny shook her head. "She told it wrong, but she told it well." 

"Yeah, yeah. I'll owl you." She kissed Draco on the cheek and glanced at her younger self.

                "He looks so very young." Virginia said thoughtfully. "Makes me feel old." Ginny glanced over and saw a chain around her neck, a ring where her collarbone dipped. Ginny surveyed her older self. 

                "So I guess I go back."

                "Guess so."

                "Is this a good idea?" 

                "Happened to me." Virginia said. "Where would I be to mess with time? I probably wouldn't have made it if I hadn't had this conversation. I met with Oliver when you first came back. You weren't ready." 

                "What do you need to say to me now?" Ginny whispered. 

                "Don't give up. You don't always have to marry for love. If you have to sleep with someone for your career, do it. Remember to have a different wedding every time." She still didn't look at Ginny, watching Oliver around the dance floor. "That's love advice. Career advice? Keep working, your passion won't always work. Always listen to goblins. Always be friendly and punctual, always. Especially when working with goblins. Which we do a lot of. Am I forgetting anything? Guess not." She sipped from the tall-stemmed glass. "Oh yeah, the past." She was blinking quickly. "Forget everything you know of the future. Everything. Embrace life as you can, act surprised. But always win bets if you can. Don't judge people and don't try to change the future. You know who I'm talking about."

                "I never acted badly towards him. He was a good person." Virginia nodded her head at Ginny's words. "Was it worth it?" Ginny whispered. Virginia didn't answer for a long time. Ginny thought perhaps she hadn't heard her over the loud music. She wouldn't ask again. 

                "Yes. It was. Sometimes I don't always think so. Many times you won't. We've had it hard. Even you, by now. Harry and Luna, huh? That's my girl. Harry was always kind of a knock-kneed nerd, but he was Harry Potter for god sakes." She laughed and then sobered again. "I won't tell. I can't tell you, but you'll have a wonderful and awful life at the same time. Be grateful for what you have, always. Lily and James got off easy." She whispered suddenly. "They died. I had the worst of it, besides Sirius, maybe." 

                Oliver grabbed her hands and pulled her out to the dance floor. "Come on, old mum. I'm coming for you next." He said happily to Ginny. She asked the bartender for a glass of champagne and downed it in one. Weddings were about getting drunk, right? They returned after one song and Virginia took a gulp of her champagne. "Easy." He said. "Are you headed out already?"

                "Yep. I've got work. And I don't want to see you leave with that tramp." She said. 

                "Oh, stick around a little. You're enjoying yourself." He coaxed. Virginia waved a hand at him. Ginny made to follow him, but Virginia grabbed her. 

                "I almost forgot the most important thing." She whispered. "Wear that thing. Always." She pointed to Oliver's first wedding band. Ginny touched it with her fingertips. 

                "I don't think I'd ever take it off." She looked lovingly at Oliver, who whirled her out on to the dance floor. They knew how to dance together from hours of Wizarding Wireless blaring over the flat. A slow song started, shortly, and Ginny made to leave, but Oliver pulled her in closer. She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, he looped his around her waist. They made sure to keep a little distance though, unlike slow songs at home. Odessa was hanging off of Roger Davies. Alicia didn't look overly happy. Ginny shook her head. Some things never changed. 

                "You do look wonderful." He whispered. 

                "Thank you." She whispered, wanting to kiss him, knowing she couldn't and still in a warm glow. "Is Odessa Professor Sprout's daughter?"

                "Granddaughter. Her mother was doing the announcing in the tent. I couldn't believe that. Wouldn't let her mother have fun with the rest of us… I'll have to talk to her about that when we get back to the flat. Sometimes the fame of it all gets to her head. Odessa's." He said as she rested her head against his chest. "I don't think I've said home in reference to the future once, how bout you?" She shook her head. "I don't go back. I didn't ever think I would. I can't tell you half the stuff, but you're in for it, Gin. Are you sure you don't just want to run off with me into the 80's? You do still have the death spinner, yeah?" 

                "Yeah. And it's destiny. I have to go." He nodded softly. 

                "I guess so. I guess I have to stay here."

                "I'm tired of guessing. I just want something to be definite." Ginny sounded tired even to herself.

                "Good luck. Nothings definite. We should have learned that by now. " Oliver said softly. Ginny loved how he said at if he was at fault, too. "I love you Ginny. Never forget that, through all the shit. I love you. You have me, waiting in the future, even if you are old mum to me now. And I even love you decades older than me. I love you." Their lips brushed for just a moment and Ginny felt the extraordinary feeling of closure. She could go home now.

                                                *                                              *                                              *   

                Three trunks in all. They were filled to the brim, magically enlarged, and the neatest Ginny had ever seen. Fawkes, phoenixes seemed to add empaths to their impressive list of skills, could feel something happy from Ginny and was singing delightfully. Her spirits were soaring. She had been at it all night the sun would be up in another hour, and she had yet to change out of her beautiful dress. The Weasleys were all staying at the house. Everything was going perfectly. Luna was sleeping with Hermione. Ginny, because of her instability, was allowed her own room. She whirled around the room and caught a glance at herself in the mirror. She had lost an uncomfortable amount of weight, there were purple bags shadowing beneath the make-up around her eyes, but she was deliriously happy, and therefore beautiful. She had noticed before that women who were viewed as beautiful, but frowned and were unpleasant were unattractive. Regardless of looks, a smile is more attractive than a frown. Always.

                "Oh Fawkes!" She kicked up her heels and whirled around her room. The blank walls and cleared carpet. She had put her furniture in one of the trunks, just in case. There was only one thing left to do before she grabbed onto Fawkes' tail and whirled home. 

She picked up her knapsack. Twelve thick rolls of parchment poked through. She walked to the top of the stairs and slipped in quietly. Ronny was sleeping, and he wasn't alone. Maybe Hermione wasn't sleeping downstairs with Luna. And where was Harry? She pulled out the appropriate rolls of parchment knowing that both owners would be back up here in the morning if they knew what was good for them, setting the matter aside. She wouldn't have to worry about all that for a long time. Not soon. She laid out Harry's on his place on the floor, and set Ron's next to his head. Her closest brother, practically her only friend in childhood, and her former lover and what she hoped future son- in- law. She kissed Hermione and Ron both on the forehead and left quietly. 

The next bedroom was her parents. Her dear, quiet father. She set the roll of parchment on his bedside and kissed him quietly on the cheek, the only appropriately kissable place presented to her. Her mother. She stood watching her for a long time. Her stern but loving upbringing was all thanks to this woman. Her yelling and her incredibly heavy sleep, unless you were doing something wrong. Guess this wasn't wrong, Molly slept peacefully. Ginny kissed her on the forehead, shuddered with tears, and left the room quickly. 

Percy's room. He slept alone, his girlfriend sleeping in their flat in London. She laid the roll next to his head and kissed his cheek. She paused a moment and looked back. She had loved him and hated him at the same time through their childhood. He was insufferable really. But when he was asleep, his face softened from its pompous, smug expression and he looked like an angel, like Bill, actually. She wished she could get to know him better. She probably would, when she was powerful and he was power-hungry. 

The twins were next. Fred had known all along about George, how could he not. She had talked to him about it, behind the scenes of the bustling Burrow. She hated to admit it, but they were her favorite brothers. Always they were her favorite. She hated to have a favorite. But she did. Bill came in a close second, but she had never really gotten to know him. Not as she knew the twins. She wrote a letter to each of them, because they were always put together. She didn't want them to be apart, but she wanted them to know that she viewed them as two people. Two people she loved deeply. She brushed their fringe aside to kiss their sweaty foreheads and amazed at them. Both still had a shadow of a mischievous grin in their sleep. One to rival the Marauders themselves. Ginny shut the door, watching the silver of light disappear from George's face. 

Charlie and Bill were next. Both slept next to their wife or girlfriend. Ginny moved quickly from Bill, not knowing Fluer's sleeping patterns, and not wanting to wake anyone up. She kissed Charlie and Tonks, going through some difficulty to plant her lips on Tonks' forehead, placing both his and Tonks' scrolls next to the bed. Tonks had become her best friend recently. She couldn't leave without a word to her. 

She finally made her way down to the living room, where Luna was sprawled on a couch and Harry was on Hermione's cot. Both were fully dressed and asleep. *That's my good, respectable girl.* They both got kissed and Ginny set down the parchment before waking Harry up. She hid her knapsack. She had pulled on a robe, in case anyone had woken up and smiled at Harry sleepily, who groaned. "Didn't do anything, honest. Swear on my life. Hermione just wanted to…" He cut himself off with a big yawn. 

"Not that, sweets. The house is going to be up soon, thought you might want to move Hermione before the shit hit the fan." He nodded his thanks and she helped him up to the first landing he suddenly turned to her with an odd look on his face, squinting at her from his glasses free face. 

"You wore your heels to bed?" She realized he had heard the clicking of her shoes on the stairs. 

"Yep. Go to bed." She nudged Harry and went into her own room. He scratched his head and seemed too tired to draw a conclusion. She went into her room and threw the robe into a trunk. She transfigured a shoelace into a thick chain and chained all the trunks together, grabbing onto one and grabbing onto Fawkes' tail feathers. "Okay Fawkes, let's go home." She both felt and heard the crackle of fire and thought, for a moment of her family, sleeping peacefully with novel-length good-byes from their only sister and daughter, from their mother, from their friend, with smudges of lipstick on their faces, awaiting morning. 

                                *                                              *                                              *

Ginny appeared, right where she had just left and released Fawkes, who flew to his perch. All those present turned, jaws unhinged in surprise. Ginny smiled broadly. "Well, I'm back."              


End file.
